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Irish: Buttered Eggs

Source of Recipe

From "The Farmette Cookbook" by Imen McDonnell


Recipe Introduction

"Some like to call buttered eggs 'Irish Gold.' I can see why; they taste like ambrosia. Buttering eggs was once a way of preserving them during the Lenten season. Farm wives and children would collect warm hen's eggs and rub butter on the shells to protect them from air, which ensured the eggs would keep until Easter. When they were finally eaten, the velvety butter flavor and, somehow, the texture melded with the egg and created an unbelievably rich flavor. I keep buttered eggs on hand for when we entertain guests; soft-boiled buttered egg makes a simple breakfast special. Serve with buttered toast 'soldiers,' pieces of toasted bread cut into thin slices for dipping into the gooey soft egg yolk."

List of Ingredients

◦ 1 cup butter, semisoft
◦ 1 dozen hen's eggs (preferably fresh from the coop)


Recipe

Wash your hands thoroughly. Massage 2 tablespoons of butter onto each egg until it is thoroughly covered. There should be about a ⅛-inch layer of butter coating each egg.

Place the eggs in a basket and store in a cool place: in the United States, the refrigerator; in Ireland, a cool cupboard. Use buttered eggs as you would regular eggs: soft- or hard-boiled, in baking, fried, and so on.

Makes one dozen buttered eggs



❧ These eggs keep for four weeks.