Julia's Eggs & a Sock Solution

by Ann Landi — September 11, 2006

Monday September 11th
œufs à la Julia

In honor of our podcast this week with Alex Prud’homme, co-author of the late Julia Child’s autobiography (click on WiredBerries Radio)—and in a nod to the need for comfort food on the fifth anniversary of the September 11th tragedy—we offer Julia’s recipe for scrambled eggs, which she learned from her mentor, Chef Max Bugnard, at the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. Here’s her description of the process, excerpted from My Life in France (Knopf, 2006).

“With a smile, Chef Bugnard cracked two eggs and added a dash of salt and pepper. ‘Like this,’ he said, gently blending the yolks and whites together with a fork. ‘Not too much.’

“He smeared the bottom and sides of a frying pan with butter, then gently poured the eggs in. Keeping the heat low, he stared intently at the pan. Nothing happened. After a long three minutes, the eggs began to thicken into a custard. Stirring rapidly with a fork, sliding the pan on and off the burner, Bugnard gently pulled the curds together—‘Keep them a little bit loose; this is very important,’ he instructed. ‘Now the cream or butter,’ he said, looking at me with raised eyebrows. ‘This will stop the cooking, you see?’ I nodded, and he turned the scramble eggs out onto a plate, sprinkled with a bit of parsley around, and said, ‘Voilà!’”

Try it. Perfect scrambled eggs every time.

Tuesday September 12th
Emergency Pastry Bag

Got a recipe that calls for squeezing goop through a tube (pasta or pastry fillings, frosting, and the like), but don’t have one on hand? Use a good-quality plastic bag—not the flimsy kind in which produce is bagged—and snip off one corner. Add the filling to the bag, squeeze gently, and you’re set to go. And there’s no gunky pastry bag to wash.

Wednesday September 13th
Tight Squeeze

Tubes of certain anchovy and tomato pastes are expensive, and so you want to squeeze out every last dab. Instead of pressing and pinching your fingers to the bone, lay the tube flat on a countertop or cutting board, and use a rolling pin. Starting from the far end of the tube, roll gently upward. Of course, this tip works for toothpaste as well—but that might be getting a little extreme.

Thursday September 14th
The Sock Solution

The end of single-sock syndrome: Keep a stash of safety pins near the hamper and pin your socks together before you throw them in the laundry. No more “lost” socks, and pairing them up after drying will be ever so much simpler.

Friday September 15th
Burning Questions

If your muffins, brownies, or cookies occasionally emerge from the oven with a slight case of charring, run the bottoms lightly over a flat or four-sided cheese grater. This gets rid of the burnt taste, and no one will ever have to know that you forgot to set the timer.