Grandma LaVann had books in her living room. Some of venerable publication to be sure. I spotted one entitled The White House cookbook. It was printed in the 1920's and was probably a wedding gift when she and Hagemann were married.
I browsed through it absolutely fascinated by turn of the century food preparation. I remember seeing tips for cleaning a feather boa. um good to know.
About that time Uncle Tony gifted me with half a dozen duck eggs. I had NO idea what to do with them and they were like super sized chicken eggs. I looked through the cook book and found an actual recipe for custard that called for HALF A DOZEN DUCK EGGS!!!!! Well, I can read a sign from above and hastily scribbled down the pertinent information. I ignored the instruction on using the wood stove.
The recipe was fairly simple, whipped eggs, a cup or so of milk, some nutmeg, a cup or so of sugar, whip, whip, whip, put in cups, bake in a water bath until slight jiggle in the custard, turn off oven, allow heat to finish the bake. Well, it turned out very nice. The eggs were as smooth as silk and I had not even strained the liquid. It was a perfect bake. Fortunately Charlie was young enough to be really enthusiastic regarding pudding.
Years later I was in Seattle visiting Carla and we went to a book shop and I spied a White House Cook Book. I snatched it up immediately. Mine is a couple decades older, it was published in 1907. There is no recipe in it for duck egg custard but there are several pointers for preserving eggs that will last from Winter to Spring. Most methods involve blocking oxygen from the shell either with layers of lard, salt, sawdust etc. No rating on which method worked best.
There are other sections on how to equip a modern kitchen and advice on managing such. Oh, bother.
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