Roasted eggs???

I enjoy cooking, and at basic stuff I’m not too bad . . . but I’d never heard of roasted eggs before.  The Telegraph reports:

There is a very good reason why we no longer eat eggs roasted on spits. Compared to boiling, scrambling, poaching, frying and coddling, spit-roasting an egg is a volcanic business.

It was once, however, common for cooks to spit-roast a hen’s eggs over a roaring fire.

The basic method, though it varies from translation to translation, is this: heat a spit until very hot, pierce the eggs with the spit, roast them over the fire, and serve.

There are some helpful hints in the 1598 translation – “heat your spit very whote”; “rost them like meat” – but otherwise, the method is vague and the egg enthusiast is left to make it up as they go along.

. . .

The glowing skewer went straight through and the egg neither leaked, nor slid off the end of its spit.

After four minutes, the shell had turned black and a small bead of amber yolk had formed where the skewer met the shell. While the egg wasn’t vibrating, it had started whistling like a kettle on a hob.

The charred shell peeled away to reveal an egg white as soft as a toasted marshmallow and a golden-jelly yolk.

The taste was smoky, meaty and absolutely delicious. All the more so for being eaten in drizzling rain.

There’s more at the link.

I’d never heard of spit-roasting eggs before.  Next time I barbecue, I think I’m going to have to try that – although judging by the number of failures the author describes, I suspect I’d better have a few dozen eggs in reserve!

Peter