Recipes that appear in Idea Alley have not been tested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
I recently received an email from North Little Rock reader Ray Barber regarding egg jelly.
Yep, you read that correctly. Egg jelly.
Barber remembers "Mother preparing an old, almost lost recipe for a 'sweet jelly' at breakfast ... done in 10 minutes or less and so simple.
"My mother, from the hills around Amity, married a Cajun guy from south Louisiana ... which side of the fence at the La.-Ark. border brought this recipe, I have no knowledge," Barber writes.
Researching the request led me down a strange path of gravies, butters and jellies.
All three dishes have been mentioned in Idea Alley before, as recently as 2011 (egg butter) and as long ago as 1955 (egg jelly).
In reading through the recipes I quickly discerned egg gravy is not the same as egg jelly. Egg gravy is very much what it sounds like -- a white gravy that includes bits of chopped, hard-cooked eggs. Egg butter recipes, on the other hand, varied. Some were more egg gravylike, with bits of cooked egg suspended in a milk gravy, while others were sweet mixtures of egg, sugar and milk or cream.
I was able to find one reference to Egg Jelly in the Idea Alley archives:
And 'Egg Jelly,' Also
Dear Milly:
In reply to De Queen Reader's request for 'Egg Butter,' there appeared in the February Progressive Farmer a recipe (said to be of West Virginia origin during the War Between the States) for 'Egg Jelly,' which may be what the reader is looking for. I have never tried it but pass it on.
'Beat 3 whole eggs well. Add 1/2 cup thick, rich cream and beat again. Add 1 cup molasses and mix well. Cook in top of double boiler over hot water until mixture sheets from spoon.'
I enjoy your column each week and clip more recipes than I'll ever have opportunity to try.
El Dorado Reader
This recipe for egg butter sounds very much like the egg jelly recipe above, but it adds nutmeg. It is from The Inglenook Cookbook by The Sisters of the Brethren Church (1906) and Sister Susie Peters, Emporia, Kan., via foodreference.com.
Egg Butter
1 cup molasses
Large lump butter (about the size of an egg)
2 eggs, beaten
Dash nutmeg
In a skillet, heat molasses and butter until butter is melted. Whisk in eggs and nutmeg, whisking constantly until blended. Remove from heat and serve immediately.
Noting Barber's mention of his Louisiana connection, I consulted The Picayune Creole Cookbook (a reprint of the second edition, copyright 1901).
I didn't find anything specifically called Egg Jelly, but I did find this recipe for Custard Sauce, which sounds remarkably similar.
Custard Sauce (Sauce Duchesse)
1 pint milk
1/2 cup powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
Set the milk to boil. Beat the eggs and sugar to a thick cream and very light, and then stir them into the boiling milk. Stir over the fire till the sauce begins to thicken, and no longer. If you stir too long the sauce will curdle. Take it from the fire and add the vanilla and serve.
I couldn't find any historical information regarding the origin of egg jelly. These recipes make me think of sabayon -- the French sauce made with egg yolks, wine and sugar. Perhaps egg jelly is an alcohol-free, breakfast-friendly version of sabayon.
Do you have a recipe for or story about egg jelly? We'd love to hear it.
Send recipe contributions, requests and culinary questions to Kelly Brant, Idea Alley, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203; email:
kbrant@arkansasonline.com
Please include a daytime phone number.
Food on 09/28/2016