Creamed eggs on toast is an American
breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. Various "typical" or "traditional" breakfast menus exist, with food choices varying by regi ...
dish. It consists of
toast or
biscuits
A biscuit is a Flour, flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and Unleavened bread, unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing (food), icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also ...
covered in a
gravy
Gravy is a sauce made from the juices of meats and vegetables that run naturally during cooking and often thickened with thickeners for added texture. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt (a mix of salt and caramel food ...
made from
béchamel sauce
Béchamel sauce or Biratta cream (, ) is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine, made from a white roux (butter and flour) and milk, seasoned with ground nutmeg.
Origin
The first recipe of a sauce similar to béchamel is in the book by ...
and chopped
hard-boiled eggs
Boiled eggs are typically from a chicken, and are cooked with their shells unbroken, usually by immersion in boiling water. Hard-boiled or hard-cooked eggs are cooked so that the egg white and egg yolk both solidify, while soft-boiled eggs may l ...
. The gravy is often flavored with various seasonings, such as
black pepper
Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...
,
garlic powder
Garlic powder is a spice that is derived from dehydrated garlic and used in cooking for flavor enhancement. The process of making garlic powder includes drying and dehydrating the vegetable, then powdering it through machinery or home-based appli ...
,
celery salt
Celery salt is a seasoned salt used to flavour food. The primary ingredient is Salt#Edible salt, table salt and the flavouring agent is ground seeds from celery or its relative, lovage. It is also sometimes produced using dried celery or seed oleo ...
,
Worcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce or Worcester sauce (UK: ) is a fermented liquid condiment invented by pharmacists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins in the city of Worcester in Worcestershire, England, during the first half of the 19th century ...
,
sherry
Sherry ( ) is a fortified wine produced from white grapes grown around the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is a drink produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versio ...
, chopped
parsley
Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...
and/or chopped
chives
Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae.
A perennial plant, ''A. schoenoprasum'' is widespread in nature across much of Eurasia and North America. It is the only spe ...
.
''The Joy of Cooking'' recommends making the bechamel with cream and chicken stock and adding capers or chopped pickle.
As with many other dishes covered in light-colored sauce, a sprinkle of
paprika
Paprika is a spice made from dried and ground red peppers, traditionally ''capsicum annuum''. It can have varying levels of Pungency, heat, but the peppers used for hot paprika tend to be milder and have thinner flesh than those used to produce ...
or
cayenne
Cayenne (; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and Overseas department, department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Caye ...
is often added as decoration.
The dish is sometimes used as a way to use up leftovers. Common additions include chopped ham, veal, chicken, lobster, cooked asparagus and peas.
Variations include Eggs Goldenrod, made by reserving the yolks and sprinkling them over the dish after the cream sauce has been poured on the toast, and Eggs à la Bechamel, substituting
croutons
A crouton () is a piece of toasted or fried bread, normally cubed and seasoned. Croutons are used to add texture and flavor to salads—notably the Caesar salad— as an accompaniment to soups and stews, or eaten as a snack food.
Etymology
T ...
fried in butter for the toast and poached or soft-boiled eggs for the hard-boiled eggs.
In this case, the cooked eggs are placed on the croutons and the sauce poured over both.
Another variation is Eggs a la tripe, in which the eggs are covered with bechamel sauce and served with fried croutons as a garnish.
In many families, this dish has become a traditional
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
brunch fare.
The 1896 edition of
Fanny Farmer's ''
Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
The ''Boston Cooking-School Cook Book'' (1896) by Fannie Farmer is a 19th-century general reference cookbook which is still available both in reprint and in updated form. It was particularly notable for a more rigorous approach to recipe writin ...
'' contains a recipe for creamed eggs and toast.
See also
*
Biscuits and gravy
A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers.
...
*
List of bread dishes
This is a list of bread dishes and foods, which use bread as a primary ingredient. Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history it has been popular around the world and is one of ...
*
List of egg dishes
This is a list of notable egg dishes and beverages. Egg as food, Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including bird egg, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have been eaten by humans for thousands of years.Kenneth F. Kiple, ...
*
List of toast dishes
Toast (food), Toast is sliced bread that has been browned by exposure to radiant heat. It appears as a main ingredient in many dishes, often as a base on which other food is served.
Toast dishes
* Avocado toast – mashed avocado on toast. A ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Creamed Eggs On Toast
American egg dishes
Toast dishes
Food combinations
American breakfast foods
Creamy dishes