And since were chatting bout eggs, have yall ever wondered HOW we got the word, EGG? Well, Ill tell ya...According to An A-Z of Food & Drink by John Ayto, The egg can track its name back to a prehistoric Indo-European source related to words for bird. The Old English term was oeg, which survived in Middle English as ey [plural eyren]. But in the 14th century the related egg was borrowed from Old Norse. And for a time the two words competed with each other (William Caxton, in the prologue to his Book of Eneydos [c.1490], asked What should a man in these day now write, eggs or eyren, certainly it is hard to please every man...), but the Norse form emerged the winner in the late 16th century. And EGG it became. Along the food timeline, wild fowl were domesticated as early as 3200 B.C. & Egyptian records show that fowl were laying eggs for man in 1400 B.C. - But Europeans have been domesticating hens since 600 B.C. Theres even strong evidence that, on his second trip in 1493, Christopher Columbus’ ships brought to the New World the chickens related to those now in egg production. Pretty cool, huh? So...why do eggs get sold by the dozen? Well, the U.S. embrace of using a dozen as standard measure descends directly from English roots. Eggs were sold by the dozen as far back as the Elizabethan times, though there is no formal declaration as to WHY. And the standard of measurement has continued even to today. My favorite way to eat em is as deviled eggs. And that term -- deviled [in reference to using a hard-boiled egg] -- was seen all the way back in the 18th century with the first known reference appearing in print in 1786. However, the stuffed egg is seen in recipes as far back in time as Ancient Rome where boiling developed AFTER roasting and baking methods [as it required both receptacles capable of holding water & heating it to 212°]. In the 19th century, hard-boiled eggs were used routinely & usually served with mustard, pepper or other ingredients stuffed inside the yolk cavity. And what is the most popular EGG? Well, thatd be the CHICKEN egg as most people of the world prefer this, followed by the Ostrich, which is the largest of all eggs. But, the bigger the egg, the runnier it is. So the littler chicken egg held together better, didnt stream all over the frying pan, THUS became more popular. And the laying hen with the highest rate of production is the Single-Comb White Leghorn breed. Okay...there you have it -- my lil historical tidbit for the day. So...who wants a poached egg? Better that than egg on your face! Woohoo...Had to share. :-)
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 17:22:25 +0000
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