throw it into a basin with the rest. One bad egg would spoil fifty.
Supposing you have a dozen or two dozen new-laid eggs just taken from the
nest, it is not an uncommon thing to have one that has been overlooked for
weeks, and which may be a half-hatched mass of putrefaction.


EGGS, FRIED.--The first point is to have a clean frying-pan, which is an
article of kitchen furniture very rarely indeed met with in this country.
For frying eggs, and for making omelets, it is essential that the
frying-pan should never be used for other purposes.

If you think _your_ frying-pan is perfectly clean, warm it in front of the
fire for half a minute, put a clean white cloth over the top of the finger,
and then rub the inside of the frying-pan.

To fry eggs properly, very little butter will be required; a little
olive-oil will answer the same purpose. If you have too much "fat," the
white of the eggs are apt to develop into big bubbles or blisters. Another
point is, you do not want too fierce a fire. Fry them very slowly. Some
cooks will almost burn the bottom of the egg before the upper part is set.
As soon as the white is set round the edge, you will often find the yolk
not set at all, surrounded by a rim of semi-transparent "albumen." When
this is the case, it is very often a good plan to take the frying-pan off
the fire (we are presuming the stove is a shut-up one), and place it in the
oven for a minute or so, leaving the oven door open. By this means the
heat of the oven will set the upper part of the eggs, and there is no
danger of the bottom part being burnt.

There is a great art in taking fried eggs out of a frying-pan and serving
them on a dish. Fried eggs, to look nice, should have the yolk in the