FOOD FRIDAY: The high price of eggs
Indignity Vol. 5, No. 34
FOOD FRIDAY DEP'T.
FOOD FRIDAY: Shelling Out
THIS WILL SURELY jinx it but so far the egg problems haven't been too bad for me, personally, where I buy my eggs. The neighborhood market still has them more often than not, when I look, and last week the food delivery company charged me $4.69 for a dozen large organic eggs. I did an email search for 2023 grocery invoices for reference and they were $4.99 a dozen at Christmas time that year, the first order I looked at. Last week, the company was limiting the eggs to three cartons per customer, but I didn't need three cartons all at once, just one carton to top off the stack of three cartons I usually keep in the fridge.
Even so, the dread about eggs has crept in. I replaced my busted food processor at last a few months ago, but I still haven't used the new one to make fazzoletti—or, let's be honest, patience- and cutting-skills-wise, maltagliati—because the recipe takes 2 whole eggs and 3 or 4 egg yolks, and even when the ambition crosses my mind, the responsibility for all those extra egg whites is too much to think about at the moment. I could make an angel food cake or something, maybe my grandfather's pancakes that use whipped egg whites for fluffiness, but, in honesty again, there's a lot going on and I would really just put the egg whites in a bowl in the fridge with honorable but weak intentions and notice them again a few days too late.
It's terrible to have to think about eggs this way. The eggs are supposed to just be there, waiting in their triple stack, to be soft-boiled or poached for adding to instant ramen, or scrambled for the quickest nourishing breakfast, or mixed into the Dutch baby batter for the Dutch oven on a slower morning, or stir-fried with tomatoes for one extra dish's worth of color and calories on a weeknight when the children look hungry. Eggs are meant to be the solution, not the problem!
OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENCE DEP'T.
IN OTHER EGG news, a reader writes in about yesterday's archaic sandwich:
Subject: Caviar Sandwiches
Those sandwiches sound really good but really expensive. I looked it up and there are roughly 10 grams of caviar for a tablespoon. Also, the cheapest price I could find for decent caviar is $98 for a 50 gram tin. So, two tablespoons would be about $40. Cutting the sandwich into thirds would give you a two bite sandwich for about $13.
On another note I did really like your sardine sandwich recipe.
Thanks
Jeff
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, February 20, 2025
★★★ The sky started out clear blue but soon went white again. The white darkened to gray, and then in the afternoon suddenly there were flakes streaking by on a diagonal. Their paths slowed and eddied, with individual ones weaving along, then the whole erratic collection reversed direction for a moment—only to snap back into unison with a new gust. The flurry seemed to abate, then came back dense, fine, and staticky. By nighttime a thin but definite coating lay on the cars and sidewalks, if not the street.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast.
Tom Scocca
Click on this box to find the Indignity Morning Podcast archive.
TOM SCOCCA
ADVICE DEP'T.
GOT SOMETHING YOU need to justify to yourself, or to the world at large? Other columnists are here to judge you, but The Sophist is here to tell you why you’re right. Direct your questions to The Sophist, at indignity@indignity.net, and get the answers you want.
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband: with Bettina’s Best Recipes, by Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron, published in 1917, available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
Lamb Sandwiches
Line some sandwich-moulds with aspic jelly flavoured with mint; when set, lay on the jelly some very thin slices of cold lamb, on which lay some shreds of cucumber, cover with more of the jelly, and put on ice; then turn them out on a bed of lettuce shred very fine and decorate with cucumber cut to pea shapes, and moistened with French salad-dressing.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
