Baked or Shirred Eggs

I'm running out of options! My choices are not only limited by ingredients, but by what I need to cook or eat with.

I've packed all my dishes except 1 coffee cup and...I have a plastic wine glass for water.  It makes me feel kind of special, like I'm at a wedding :) All my pots and pans are packed away also, leaving me with an angel food cake pan that wouldn't fit nicely in the box with the other pans and a square pyrex baking dish.

So...I have all the fixings for making bread products, a bunch of spices, and a few pans, but I can't live on bread alone. I've already made 2 Sally Lunn cakes (well..technically 3, since I ate one before taking pictures) and the Canadian Cheese Supper Ring...I figure it's time to use up some eggs before next Saturday when I do the 'BIG MOVE'.

While I don't have any custard cups, I do have a bunch of very cute 1/4 cup mason jars that can be heated in the oven. So...Baked or Shirred Eggs it is!

The ingredients are pretty simple; eggs, butter, salt, and pepper.

Since I've packed almost everything that can be used to melt butter, I put 1 teaspoon of butter into each mason jar and let the butter melt in a hot water bath. It works well and actually saves having to clean another dish.

Crack the egg in to the dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dab with a bit more butter...since the teaspoon of butter previously wasn't enough!

Pop them in to a 350 F oven for approximately 15 minutes.

This recipe comes from the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic CookBook (1950). There are 6 additional variations for this recipe (cheese, chicken livers (YUCK! Nope, not trying!), pork sausage, roquefort baked eggs, eggs a la suisse, and eggs in mustard sauce) that I'll get around to trying at some point, but sadly...not while in Toronto.

Keeper: Yes Siree :)  The eggs were yummy and what could be better than making eggs that you don't have to babysit.

Baked or Shirred Eggs
Culinary Arts Encyclopedic Cookbook - 1950  (pg 289)



INGREDIENTS

• 6 or 12 eggs
• butter
• salt
• pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Melt 1 teaspoon of butter in each custard cup.
2. Break 1 or 2 eggs in to each cup.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and dot with butter.
4. Bake in moderate oven (350 F) until eggs are firm but not hard, approximately 15 minutes.
5. Serve in the cups.