[Sca-cooks] Soup and eggs question

[Stefan li Rous]

Helen asked:

<<< I am looking at the Savoury Soup for a Feast of about 125-150  
quests.

It states to float poached eggs in the servings.?

the soup will be served either by pitchers or by a soup tureen, if I  
can borrow them from a fellow member.

Now, we are talking about a lot of poached eggs, here.

What would be the most feasible route?

A) Poach the eggs the morning of and try to keep them fresh by  
chilling them in the fridge, covered in plastic warp? Unwrap and  
float in the hot liquid for a few minutes just before serving.

B) Hard boil them, peel and slice in two, floating the halves in the  
soup.

C) Prepare them as stuffed eggs and serve on a platter besides the  
soup, along with stuffed mushroom caps, flat bread points and herb  
butter. >>>

I don't think either B or C come that close to what the original  
recipe is trying to achieve. Poached eggs are not hard boiled eggs.  
The later is boiled in the shell where the former has the eggs broken  
over and cooked in a hot/boiling liquid. Different textures and if  
poached in a liquid other than water, such as a soup, more flavorful.

I assume that you are either making the soup on site or warming it  
back up. The big difference between making a soup or a few or a large  
group is the difference in surface area to volume. You probably can  
not poach all the eggs at the same time for a large group. However,  
it probably doesn't hurt to boil the soup for a while once it has  
gotten hot enough to poach the eggs. So I would poach them in  
batches, setting them aside as they get done. You don't want so many  
eggs in the soup at one time such that they merge into one large  
mass, but they shouldn't take that long to poach.

After all of the eggs are poached, I imagine they can all be placed  
back in the soup to warm up again. Since by that time the eggs should  
be cooked, you shouldn't have a problem of the eggs merging into a  
large mass. Or when serving, start with some eggs in the soup tureen  
or pitchers and add more as the first ones are served.

Helen, thank you for your compliment on the Florilegium. Just in case  
you haven't found it, this file in the FEASTS section might also help  
you with some of the other logistics of serving soups at an SCA feast.
serving-soups-msg (18K)  4/14/07    Serving soups at SCA feasts.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****