Classic gems: Stirred Eggs

I discovered the recipe below this weekend when flipping through an old paperback cookbook 'How to Cook and Eat in Chinese' by Buwei Yang Chao. The first edition was released in 1945 and the last edition in 1963 (although my copy was printed in 1972). As it turns out, this is really something of a classic. It is a Chinese woman's (who learned to cook while at medical school in Japan no less) attempt to make Chinese cuisine understandable to an American audience and offers explanatory sections about materials, utensils and preparation as well as recipes and menus. To underscore the classic quality, the preface to this book was written by Pearl S. Buck - within which she 'nominates' the author for a Nobel Peace Prize for the contribution this book has made to peace, friendship and understanding. Indeed, a quick Google search will tell you that Dr. Chao was first to use the description 'stir-frying' to describe the cooking method known in Chinese as ch'ao.

It is a charming cookbook for its simplicity and its recipes as well as its 'of another time' quality (the use of several tablespoons of lard in almost every recipe might be an example of this). The recipe below is more of a description and is credited to the author's husband, identified only as R.Y.C., noting that this is the only thing he can cook well. I've shortened it slightly as it is rather long - but it is hard to edit as the whole thing is so utterly charming:

'Obtain:
6 average-sized fresh eggs (for this is the maximum number of eggs I have cooked at one time)
3g of cooking salt (or, as an alternative, 4 g of table salt)' [blogger's note - the only reference I can find that indicates that there might be a difference between these two types of salt says that cooking salt is a curing salt used for curing meats - unless I've gotten this wrong I wouldn't actually recommend that you season your eggs with it!)]
'50cc fresh lard, which will approximately equal the conent of 4 level tablespoonfuls
1 plant of Chinese ts'ung (substitute with scallion if ts'ung is unobtainable) about 30cm long by 7 mm in average diameter. (This ingredient is optional)' [bloggers note - scallions are what Americans call green onions or spring onions]

'Either shell or unshell the eggs by knocking one against another in any order. Be sure to have a bowl to catch the contents. With a pair of chopsticks, strike the same with a quick vigorous motion known as 'beating the eggs'. This motion should, however, be made repeatedly and not just once. Automatic machines, aptly named as 'egg-beaters' have been invented for this purpose'....

The author inserts a footnote about breaking the eggs at the bottom of the page: 'Since, when two eggs collide, only one of them will break, it will be necessary to use a seventh egg with which to break the sixth. If, as it may very well happen, the seventh egg breaks first instead of the sixth, an expedient will be simply to use the seventh one and put away the sixth. An alternate procedure is to delay your numbering system and define that egg as the sixth egg which breaks after the fifth egg.' ....

'The next phase of the operation is the most critical for the successful stir-frying of eggs. When the bottom part of the mixture becomes a puffed-up soft mass on contact with the heat, the uppoer part will remain quite liquid. Preferably using a thin flat piece of metal attached to a handle, the operator should push the mixture to one side so as to allow the uncooked portion to flow onto the hot fat on the now exposed portion of the bottom. (Sometimes this may be facilitated by slightly tipping the pan.) Quickly repeat this until 90 percent of the liquid has come in contact wiht the hot fat and becomes puffed. Then, still using the flat piece of metal, make the entire content of the pan revolve through 180 degrees about a horizontal axis. This delicate operation is know as 'turing it over', which in the hands of a beginner may easily become a flop. It can be done neatly and without waste only after repeated practice with different sets of eggs.

If the turning over has been successfully carried out, wait for 5 seconds, which is about the time it takes to count from 1 to 12., then transfer the contents to the bowl or platter, when the dish is said to be done.

To test whether the cooking has been done properly, observe the person served. If he utters a voiced bilabial nasal consonant with a slow falling intonation, it is good. If he utters the syllable yum in a reduplicated form, it is very good.' [blogger's note: R.Y C. was acutally a prominent linguist at the time so his identification of a voiced bilabial consonant is less odd than it may seem at first glance.]

I was so delighted by this that I thought it was worth sharing....any errors or misrepresentations are strictly my own.