Forced Eggs, Pickled Eggs & Shaker Spiced Salt

This week's receipts for our "Six weeks of want" focus on the bounty of eggs that would be available at this time of year because hens, were once again, laying prodigiously.

Forced Eggs- Hannah Glasse, 1796

2 pounds bulk pork sausage
16 whole hard boiled eggs (peeled)
2 tbsp Pan Drippings
4 tbsp Flour
1/2 tsp Shaker Spiced Salt (see recipe below)
2 C. Boiling Water

Divide sausage meat into 16 portions. Wrap each egg in one portion of sausage, completely covering the egg. Fry in a heavy skillet, until no longer pink. Stir flour into pan drippings. Simmer for 2 minutes while stirring. Add boiling water to dripping & flour mixture. Stir until smooth. Add spiced salt and simmer for a few minutes. Pour gravy into serving dish. Slice eggs lengthwise and lay, yoke side up on top of gravy.

**Author note-These were good the next day cold as well!

"Spiced Salt should always be kept on hand. Use it for seasoning soups, dressings and meats."
-Amy Bess Miller


Shaker Spiced Salt-Adapted from The Best Of Shaker Cooking, by Amy Bess Miller

2 tbsp Salt
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cloves
3/8 tsp ginger

Pound all herbs together, with the salt. Store in an airtight container.


Pickled Eggs-Adapted from La Cuisine Creole

Many foods can be pickled, and eggs are no exception. Pickled eggs were considered to be a popular accompaniment to cold meats. Accordingly, farm wives commonly put up several dozen pickled eggs a year, and receipts for them abound using different ingredients like mustard powder, or vinegar that beets have been in, to give fine flavor and color to the item. There is one drawback to preserving your eggs by pickling - they can’t be used any other way!

36 small or medium eggs, hard-boiled -- shells removed
1 quart vinegar -- white or cider
1 tps whole black peppercorns
2 tsp allspice
2 ginger root slices -- 1/4 inch thick
3 whole garlic cloves
4 whole cloves
2 whole bay leaves

"When eggs are abundant and cheap, it is well to pickle some for time of scarcity. Boil three or four dozen eggs for half an hour, let them cool, and take off the shells, and place them in wide-mouthed jars, and pour over them scalding vinegar. Season the vinegar with whole pepper, cloves or allspice, ginger and a few cloves of garlic. When cold, they must be bunged down very close. Let them be well covered with the vinegar, and in a month they will be fit for use. The above pickle is by no means expensive, and as an accompaniment to cold meat is not to be surpassed for piquancy and gout."

****Cook's Note-You may cut down this recipe by 1/2 or 2/3 if you do not want to pickle 36 eggs at a time!