[Sca-cooks] Soup and eggs question

[chawkswrth at aol.com]

Most likely the soup will be made ahead. The kitchen is small, so it is hard to share all weekend with the ones who will also be using it-the Travelers' Fare for Friday Night and the Royal Luncheon on Saturday Morning. The Soup, the breads, and whatever else will be made ahead, if it can be canned or frozen (preferably frozen)
It is the logististics of poaching 12 dozen eggs that is intemidating. Imagine, if you will, standing over a pot of boiling stock or water, breaking one egg into a small bowl, stirring the stock vigorously, creating a vortex, and quickly sliding the egg into the vortex while removing the spoon, carefully. Now, do that 144-150 times. 
Now you see why coddled or hard-boiled eggs sounds so much better, faster, easier. 
And stuffed eggs can be done in batches, the night before. 

Do it one way, that will take up a knowledgable kitchen staffer all day, or do it the fast and easier way, where you can have? couple of not-so-experienced staffers working together when the help is plentiful....

That is the dilemma. 

Helen

BTW-been there, already read it. ;-D


-----Original Message-----
From: Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com

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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.?
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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.?
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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.?
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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.?
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Stefan?
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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 ****?
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