Dish of Farce Eggs prepare by Mistress Christiana Elizabeth Constable a member
of the Duchy of Connacht - Adrian Empire
To Farce Eggs
Take 8 eggs and boile them hard. Peel off shells, cut every egg in the middle: them take out yoks. Make your farcing stuff as you do, for fles saving only you must put butter into it instead of suet and that a little so done, fill your eggs where yolks were and them bring them and swwthe them a lttle. And so serve them to the table. (The Good Housewife jewel Thomas Dawson, withan introduction by Maggie Black {London 1596} p 86.
The making of Stuffed eggs
Take as many eggs as you like, and boil them whole in hot water, put them in cold water and split them in half with a thread, Take the yolks aside and pound cilantro, and put in onion juice, pepper and coriander, and beat with murri, oil and salt and kneal the yolks with this until it forms a dough. Then stuff the whites with this and fasten it together, insert a small stick into each egg and sprinkle them with pepper. God willing (Anonymous Andalusiein Cookbook of 13th century - translated by Charles Perry)
This recipt is close to the one I Christiana learned at an arts and science session at the 2010 Tir Righ Arts and Sciences October - Kamloops. This is the closest version to that of my lost notes. Please note that some items were not available and substitutes were made.
Translation and substitutes
List of ingredients and methods
A doz eggs hard boils, with the yolks removed and placed in mixing bowls
Grind up the cilantro and onions - Cilantro were substituted with spinach.
Add olive oil and red wine vinegar (optional) and mixed all together with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Make into a dough and at to egg whites, and serve.
I Christiana also took a session on Roman Cookery at the same event, and for those that wish to try this recipe remove the cilantro and add an oil fish like anchovy paste. It will have a tendency to taste salty so you may wish to not add salt to this recipe.
Deviled eggs have their roots in ancient Rome recipes with the first published recipes for stuffed boiled eggs there from Medieval Europe. It should be noted that the term deviled name was coined in 18th Century England.
Where did the English word egg originate from? Eggs track it name back to prehistoric Indo European source related to words birds. The old English term was oeg, which survived in Middle English, as eq (plural eyren) but in the 14th century the related egg was borrowed from Old Norse (Oxford University Press Oxrd) 2002 pg 117.
Preparation of Eggs: As most do not have the luxury of collection of fresh eggs, most will have to acquire the eggs from the local grocery store. The eggs for this process should not be farm flesh, as if they are quite flesh, and when coming to removing the shell, the shell will have a tendency to stick while peeling. Since I use to raise chickens, the flesh eggs would not have much of an air sack and would sink to the bottom of the pan. Store bought eggs will have a tendency to point upward when in water. If they float totally the egg is very old, and should not be used.
To center the yolks before cooking, one may lay the eggs on there side. Eggs from the store are stored upright, and the yolk will tend to settle to the bottom on the egg. In placing them on their sides this helps in centering the yolk which will take about 12 hours.
Cooking the eggs: Bring eggs up to room temperature. You can speed this process up by running warm water over the egg, until reaching room temperature. The temperature of the egg at start of cooking will affect the cooking time (eggs at room temperature will require approx 1 minute less cooking time than eggs taken directly from the refrigerator).
Place eggs in a single layer in a pan with enough cold water cover eggs completely covered.
Bring eggs to a boil, remove from heat, cover tightly with a lid, and allow to remain in water for 15 to 20 minutes. If eggs are boiled, or cooked to long, the protein toughens and or will become rubbery and a greenish or purplish ring forms around the yolk.
Place hot eggs under running cold water to cool quickly which is also known as "codding." This can also be done also by placing cold water and ice in a pan to speed up the process. This allow steam to form under the shell, and will help in easing the egg white from sticking to the shell and will help assist you in the egg shell peeling process easier.
Storage: If not going to the next step immediately you will have to refrigerate the hard boil eggs within hours. Hard cooked eggs in the shell will keep for a week. Please note do not peel the eggs of their shells till ready to process in the next steps.
Steps:
1) Let eggs cool than peel
2) Using sharp knife cut eggs lengthwise in half
3) Remove egg yolk and place yolk in mixing bowl
4) Using fork mash egg yolks together
5) Add ingredients to mashed egg yolks
6) fill eggs whites with yolk mixture to have mixture heaping
7) Arrange filled white on plate
8) garnish with desired toppings
NOTE: Serve well chilled: Stuffed eggs may be made more more than one day in advance and MUST be kept covered and refrigerated. 3 C is the idea temperature for storage. Note: As temperature increases in storing and or serving, undesirable bacteria will form within hours, therefore it is important to keep chilled until served.
As I Christiana have many variations of farce eggs, I have included the recipe of the dish shown in the photo above. You may wish to leave the mayonnaise out, but you will have to apply a binder for the egg dough, which can be made of red wine vinegar, and olive oil. Therefore where I call for mayonnaise substitute this in its place
12 eggs hard boil with yolks removed 1 1/2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
tsp of onion juice salt and pepper to taste
pinch of dill weed ground
Topping
pinch of Spanish Paprika
shrimp or olives - black or green
tooth picks.
Optional - Substitute for mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
Serves 12 assuming two halves for each. Note it is not everyone that wishes to eat farce eggs, but it does work as an advertiser before a meal.
