A Sweet Quartet

Sugar, Almonds, Eggs and Butter: A Baker's Tour Including 33 Recipes

By Fran Gage

Just as ancient people stole honey from bees, the first eggs eaten were pilfered from wild birds. When fowl were domesticated, eggs were still precious, and no wonder, as they are almost the perfect food, containing all the essential amino acids and most of the necessary vitamins. It wasn't until the 20th century that a shadow fell over the egg because of its saturated fat content. More recently, a worry about salmonella bacteria in eggs has made people cautious about how they are cooked. Now people eat them with less abandon, rationing their weekly allotment. And they have strong opinions about the eggs they do eat – brown versus white, fertilized or otherwise, from chickens that roam versus those in pens, from chickens given organic feed versus those given commercial. Duck eggs roll into American kitchens occasionally too. Their yolks are larger and fattier, astonishing in custards. I almost bought an emu egg at a farmers' market last year, a heavy gray football with iridescent green blotches, but as one of them scrambled would feed 15 or 20, it seemed excessive for just my husband and me.

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• Substitution Chart
• Cook's Dictionary
• Talk about it!