Creamed eggs on toast is an American breakfast dish.[1] It consists of toast or biscuits covered in a gravy[2] made from béchamel sauce and chopped hard-boiled eggs. The gravy is often flavored with various seasonings, such as black pepper, garlic powder, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, sherry, chopped parsley and/or chopped chives. The Joy of Cooking recommends making the bechamel with 12 cream and 12 chicken stock and adding capers or chopped pickle.[3] As with many other dishes covered in light-colored sauce, a sprinkle of paprika or cayenne is often added as decoration.

Creamed eggs on toast
Creamed eggs on toast, an American breakfast
CourseBreakfast
Place of originUnited States
Region or stateSouth, Midwest
Serving temperatureWarm
Main ingredientsHard-boiled eggs, cream sauce
Ingredients generally usedToast
VariationsCreamed eggs on a biscuit

The dish is sometimes used as a way to use up leftovers. Common additions include chopped ham, veal, chicken, lobster, cooked asparagus and peas.[4]

Variations include Eggs Goldenrod, made by reserving the yolks and sprinkling them over the dish after the cream sauce has been poured on the toast,[5] and Eggs à la Bechamel, substituting croutons fried in butter for the toast and poached or soft-boiled eggs for the hard-boiled eggs.[6] In this case, the cooked eggs are placed on the croutons and the sauce poured over both.

Another variation is Eggs a la tripe, in which the eggs are covered with bechamel sauce and served with fried croutons as a garnish.[7]

In many families, this dish has become a traditional Easter brunch fare.[8] The 1896 edition of Fanny Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book contains a recipe for creamed eggs and toast.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Good Housekeeping. p. 435.
  2. ^ Entertaining on the Jewish Holidays - Israela Banin. p. 36.
  3. ^ Rombauer, Irma S.; Becker, Marion Rombauer (1975). Joy of Cooking (Enlarged and rev. ed.). Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. p. 342. ISBN 0-672-51831-7.
  4. ^ Perkins, Wilma Lord (1965). The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (11th ed.). Little, Brown and Co. p. 102.
  5. ^ Farmer, Fannie Merritt (1996). The Original Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, 1896 (100th anniversary ed.). [New York]: H.L. Levin Associates. p. 96. ISBN 0-88363-196-2.
  6. ^ editor, Prosper Montagné; American; Escoffier, Charlotte Turgeon; pref. by Robert J. Courtine; original preface by Auguste; Hunter, Philéas Gilbert; text translated from the French by Marion (1977). The new Larousse gastronomique : the encyclopedia of food, wine & cookery. New York: Crown Publishers. p. 344. ISBN 0-517-53137-2. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Beeton, Isabella (1859–1861). The book of household management. Skyhorse. ISBN 1634502426.
  8. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)