Tag Archives: eggs

Urban Chicken Wrangler

Posted by meetsy in chickens, raising chickens and tagged with ,

I go into the feed stores, and hear the peeping. It is so hard to resist the chicks. So cute running around pecking. Its hard for me to resist.

I think everyone should have a chicken or two, in their lives. When I lived in an urban center, I  decided that I just HAD to have some chickens. (We already had a duck that my daughter had talked me into, and, of course, you can’t just have one duck, so we had three.)

As I discovered…a lot of people have chickens. My UPS guy, the mailman,the clerk at the grocery store…a few teachers at my daughters school. I even joined an “urban chicken” club. I found people who showed chickens.  (I found this weird.) There is a lot more poultry around in cities that would seem “normal”. I had no idea until I had chickens. It was like being pregnant, you don’t notice anyone is pregnant until you are, then you see pregnant women EVERYWHERE.  In this case, I didn’t now that there was a very active underground poultry society until I had my own.

smaller chicken and laundry

White Crested Black Polish chicken under my clothesline.,

I learned by trial-and-error, and from other people. But, compared to a lot of pets, chickens are the least demanding of any pet I’ve ever owned. In the beginning, I had two full-sized birds, and two bantam “Silkies” (very odd little birds). Bantams are half-sized chickens…so chicken lite, and they lay these cute little eggs. (Great for a diet.) The challenge was in keeping them safe. So, we trained them to go into portable dog kennels (the airline type) every night, and then haul them in the house. (I say “train” this consisted of seeking them from wherever they had decided to roost in the yard, and snagging them, putting them INTO the kennel every night…until they figured out that the kennels were the safe spot to go. However, if you don’t put the kennels in the exact same spot every day, they get confused.  Then they’ll go back to plucking them from bushes and trees every night. (Which sucks.)  I started leaving the kennels where they were, from when I left them out.  The chickens got the clue, and sometimes would lay their eggs IN the kennels, which made me happy. But, sometimes I’d forget, or one of the kids would move the kennels, and that night, I was again, out after dark, with a flashlight searching for where the chickens were hiding. When you snatch a chicken in the dark, it makes a terrible, terrified noise. Poor things sound pitiful.  It did anchor me around their schedule, until I built a hen-house and yard with a covered top and sides. It was a constant worry and race to get home “before it was too dark” to put them inside.

On second thought, maybe they trained me.
In the day they’d go out in the yard and run around. Eat bugs, and we’d give them a little grain and leftovers in the morning, and a small amount of grain at night, about an hour before sunset. (I didn’t like to keep food out because I didn’t want rodents.)  Grain is chicken crack, by the way, they’ll eat that before they eat anything else.

I’ll admit, I was ready to throw in the towel, at first.  I mean, chicks are cute, but the teen chickens are just jerks. They are messy, loud, and smelly.  But, once we had the eggs — that was is IT! We were addicted. With only four layers (two small eggs and two large) we would wait with anticipation of “someone laying”. On average, two eggs a day, was more than a dozen a week. That was great. (Back then I wasn’t all that into eggs.)

Once I moved to a quasi-rural area, I ordered 25 from McMurray (big online/catalog hatchery). I cannot tell you that 25 are as easy as a few. They aren’t. Even with a big, “formal” hen-house, there is a lot more cleaning, more heartache. We’ve had problems with when raccoons discovered the easy pickings, eagles swooping down, large ravens taking a few out, a local dog had a blast one afternoon.  Chickens are prey. They’re not always smart enough to get out of harm’s way. And, then, the chicken breeds, themselves.  I wish I’d paid more attention to when the catalog said “calm bird” or “good foragers” “lively”, etc.   I’ve come to find out “alert” and the “good forager” are polite terms for crazy chickens!  And chickens that are “good mothers” also mean that they’ll go broody, all summer long. (A broody hen is one that stops laying, and starts gathering every egg they can find to put under her ample butt, so that she can hatch them. Often a broody hen will defend the eggs, with a vengeance, and will also go rogue in your yard somewhere – MIA.  The broody hen won’t eat or drink, either.)

The bigger heavier breeds are much easier to deal with. I am a huge fan of the Orpington breed (especially the Buff Orpington).

Two dozen chickens produced up to two dozen eggs a day.  On average, it was, at the very least, a dozen a day (and with the ducks, another half-dozen, and when the geese are laying another four. Eggs, eggs, eggs!) For a while, I tried to supply most of my neighbors with eggs, until they were politely saying “no thanks”.  I baked a pound cake each week. Made angel food cakes (hey! uses a dozen) and custards, and searched for more recipes.  I froze eggs (separated works best).  I even started (recycling?) cooking up the eggs to feed back to the hens . (Cook the eggs before giving them back to the hens so they don’t start eating their own eggs, and cut out the middle-man: YOU.)

Over the years my chicken population has dropped (from the aforementioned predators), to a more manageable number of chickens.  I think that two chickens for each person in the household is the right number of chickens.

Poultry is about the closest you’ll get to having dinosaurs in your yard. Chickens are amusing to watch.  And, can they eat! They are eating machines. The bugs in the yard get gobbled up and, most important: they eat leftovers.  No more guilt over tossing out a stale loaf of bread, or the rice that no one seems to want to eat as a leftover,  or that last bit of breakfast cereal at the bottom of the box…that the kids won’t eat because there isn’t enough for a full bowl. They also gobble up peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that come back from a packed school lunch all squished and miserable looking, vegetable trimmings, and wilted vegetables, bruised apples, and whatever else that would usually go into the trash can or garbage disposal.

I would recommend poultry for anyone. It’s hard to be depressed and feeling lonely when you have a flock of poultry that think you are a food god! You can’t be unhappy when all the chickens immediately stop whatever they are doing and  run over to see what you have for them. It adds a nice balance to life. They are always happy to see you.

Old Cookbooks: Columbia Cook Book, 1902

Posted by meetsy in Egg Recipe, Egg Recipe History and tagged with , , ,

In my old first edition (1898), Columbia Cook Book, which was written by the Ladies Aid Society of the First Baptist Church of Colombia, Tennessee, there are some egg recipes that I have never come across in my quest for egg recipes.   Eggs are discussed at great length in this compiled book. It was back in the day when every home had chickens in the yard. The recipes have been copied exactly as they were written in the cookbook.  In old cookbooks the recipes were written by many different people, and not well edited, or formatted to list ingredients first, and then instructions. In some cases the wording is awkward, and who knows what they’re talking about.  It’s a little odd to read, but the variation and scope of the use of eggs as a meal. Its interesting to revisit these old gems..

colombia cookbook

Columbia Cookbook 1902 , the Bradley & Gilbert Company

There are so many ways of cooking and dressing eggs that it seems unnecessary for the ordinary family to use only those that are most practical.

The first point of importance is to see that your eggs are perfectly fresh by putting them in a pan of water, and if fresh they will sink immediately, or float if doubtful.  Or, hold them before a strong light, and if the yolk appears round and the white surrounding clear, the chances are that it is good.

Eggs are highly nutritious, pleasing to the palate, and easy of digestion, and are said to contain all that which is required for the sustenance of the human body.  So that they should form part of the daily bill of fare for every family.

The fresher eggs are, the more wholesome, although new-laid eggs require to be cooked longer than others. Eggs over a week old will do to fry, but not to boil. Do not mix eggs in a tin: always use earthenware.

The best and safest plan to feel assured of the freshness of an egg before using is to break each egg into a saucer before cooking, for if one egg is slightly tainted, it will leven the whole.

Boiled Eggs

The fresher laid the eggs are the better. Put them in boiling water; if you like the white set, about two minutes’ boiling is enough. A new-laid egg will take three minutes if you wish the yolk set. To boil hard for salads or made dishes will take ten minutes.

Poached Eggs

Two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of milk, half a tablespoonful of butter. Beat the eggs and add the salt and the milk. Put the butter in a small sauce-pan, and when it melts add the eggs. Stir over the fire until the mixture thickens, being careful not to let it cook hard. About two minutes will cook it. The eggs, when done, should be left soft and creamy. Serve immediately

Creamed Eggs

Break as many eggs in a buttered pie-dish as it will hold without crowding each others. Sprinkle with pepper and salt, and put a bit of butter on each. Have ready a cup of hot milk in which has been cooked for one minute a teaspoon of corn-starch, or better yet arrowroot wet up with cold water. Pour this, a spoonful at a time, about the raw eggs, and bake it in a quick oven until the eggs are fairly set. Five minutes should do it. Send to table at once in the pie-plate.

Baked eggs

Soak a cupful of bread-crumbs in a half a cupful of hot milk for twenty minutes, stir in a teaspoonful of butter, the yolk of an egg, a tablespoonful of grated cheese, two tablespoonfuls of savory broth, a little minced onion, and a teaspoonful of minced parsley. Pour the mixture into a neat pie-plate, and set, covered in a quick oven. In six minutes lift the cover, break as many eggs on the bubbling surface as the dish will hold, sift the fine crumbs on top and leave in the oven for three minutes longer. Serve in the dish.

Fricasseed Eggs

Boil for fifteen minute, throw at once into cold water, and let them lie there for the same time. Peel, cut each in half length-wise; extract the yolks and rub smooth with a teaspoonful of anchovy paste, a little made mustard, and the tiniest suspicion of cayenne. Mold this pasty mixture into balls of the same shape and size as the yolks, put them into the cavities left in the halved whites, fasten them in place by tying firmly with cotton twine when you have skewered them together with wooden toothpicks, once through each bisected egg. Have ready in a sauce-pan a good cupful of drawn butter (drawn with milk, not water), season with pepper, salt, and minced parsley. Lay the eggs in carefully; set the sauce-pan covered in boiling water, and cook gently, keeping the water outside at a slow boil for ten minutes. Arranges the eggs in a pile on a heated platter, and pour the sauce over them.

Meringued Eggs

Whip the whites of the eggs very stiff. Lay great spoonfuls of the standing froth on a platter that will stand the oven heat. With the back of a tablespoon make a hollow in the middle of each heap, and put a raw yolk in it. Set in the oven until the meringue begins to color faintly, sprinkle with pepper and salt, lay a bit of butter on each egg, and serve in the platter in which they were baked.

Fried Eggs

Melt some butter in a frying pan, and when it hisses drop in the eggs carefully. Frey three minutes; dust with pepper and salt, and transfer to a hot dish

Scrambled  Eggs

Heat the spider, and put in a little butter; have the eggs broken into a dish, salt and pepper them,; add a small piece of butter; beat up just enough to break the eggs, then our into the buttered spider; scrape the up from the bottom with a thin knife, to prevent their cooking fast; do not cook too dry

Buttered Eggs

Four eggs, two ounces of butter, two tablespoonfuls of cream, a little grated tongue, pepper, and salt to taste, pieces of buttered toast. Break four eggs into a basin, and beat them well; but two ounces of butter and two tablespoonfuls of cream into a saucepan; add a little grated tongue, pepper and salt to taste; when quite hot add the eggs, stir until nearly set, then spread the mixture on pieces of buttered toast and serve.