EGGS. 257 
fit to be eaten. The hen’s egg is a good illustration of the fact 
that albuminous, or proteid food, is earlier in use for life develop- 
ment than starch foods. The body of the chick is formed (by 
warmth alone) from the yellow yolk; the white of the egg is 
almost pure albumin and water; whilst around all is the impene- 
trable shell, part of which has to be dissolved from within to form 
the bones. Albumin coagulates at a temperature of fiity-two 
degrees less than that of boiling water, so that eggs and food 
dishes made therewith. should be cooked according to this rule ; 
otherwise the albuminous parts will harden on until leathery and 
indigestible. The albumin of egg yolk is vitelin, which coagulates 
firmly at a lower temperature than the white, being supposed 
also to contain some casein. 
Eggs fried in fat become inaccessible to the gastric juice 
within the stomach, and are therefore tardy of digestion; to wit, 
in the omelette, and the pancake when made without flour, 
but lemon juice sprinkled over either of these is helpful. An 
omelette differs from a pancake in not being thin, or browned, 
and in not being baked on’ both sides. It does not readily 
assimilate with sweet principles, except when fine fruit jellies are 
used instead of jams, or stewed fruit. Omelettes with coarse 
jams, simulating fine confitures,and savoury omelettes with all the 
whites of the eggs put into them, are inferior products of culin- 
ary skill. Former cookery books up to 1840 prefer the omission 
of half of the egg whites, because the preponderance of the yolks 
makes an omelette more tasty, more loose in its substance, and 
more tender. Indeed, Dr. Kitchener (Cook’s Oracle) deems this 
suppression of half the whites so important that without it no 
omelette can be kept from proving hard.. Scrambled or stirred 
eggs are a kind of spoiled omelette. Mary Smith in her Complete 
Housekeeper (1772) gives an omelette as a “ Hamlet,” also Sauce 
Robert, as “ Roe-boat Sauce,”’ and Queen’s Soup as “ Soupe a la 
Rain.” Thackeray when he invited schoolboys to dinner always 
gave them beefsteak, and an apricot omelette; generally as a 
prelude before taking them to see a pantomime. 
Fresh eggs, if coated by dipping in, or brushing over with 
water-glass (a dissolved silicate of soda in hot water, called also 
“mineral lime”), can be preserved almost indefinitely by the 
hard impenetrable protective glaze which is thus made to surround 
them. “ This water-glass,” says the Lancet, “is also a powerful 
antiseptic.” Eggs treated thus will preserve their fresh milky 
ag 
