What to do with an egg glut

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egg glut - pile of eggs on antique wooden egg tray

Last week, we looked after our neighbours’ chickens while they went on holiday. We’ve done it before but, back then, the brood was only about a third of the size it is now.

Some of the neighbours' chickens

Before long, we had an ever-growing pile of eggs mounting up in our kitchen. With each passing day, another 6 eggs or so were being added. What to do with our new-found egg glut?

Boiled eggs in a saucepan

I didn’t want to have either leftover yolks or leftover whites going to waste, so I looked into making dishes that used whole eggs.

Here’s one savoury and one sweet recipe I decided on…

  • Pickled eggs – We’ve both lived nearly half a century but neither of us has ever eaten a pickled egg! They never look appetising sitting on a shelf, in jars, in a hot chip shop, for who knows how long! I didn’t have whole allspice, only ground, so my pickle liquid became a bit cloudy with a little sediment. You’re meant to leave them for a month before you eat them – so we’ll report back then.
  • Egg custard – This was a little disappointing to be honest – a bit unexciting. It had nothing over a traditional egg custard tart baked in a pastry case. Transforming it into either a crème caramel or crème brûlée are other good options.

Pickled eggs
Serves 7
Ingredients
  1. 7 hard-boiled eggs
  2. ½tbs chilli flakes
  3. 1 pint distilled malt vinegar
  4. 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, rough chopped
  5. ½tbs white peppercorns
  6. ½tsp whole allspiceHome-made pickled eggs ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Tie the spices in a piece of muslin and boil gently in the vinegar for 5 minutes
  2. Pour into a bowl and remove the spices. Leave to cool
  3. Shell the eggs and pack into a sterilised, wide-necked jar
  4. Fill with the cold vinegar to cover the eggs completely. Screw or tie down and leave for a month before eating
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H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Egg custard
Serves 4
Ingredients
  1. 568ml/1 pint full fat milk
  2. 4 eggs
  3. 50g caster sugar
  4. 2tsp vanilla extract
  5. fresh nutmegegg custard ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 140ºC/Gas mark 1 and butter a round oven-proof dish
  2. Pour the milk into a saucepan and heat until hot but not actually boiling
  3. In a bowl that's large enough to take the milk as well, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Then, still whisking, pour in the hot milkadding hot milk to egg mixture
  4. Sit the buttered dish in a roasting tin to make a bain marie. Strain the custard mixture through a sieve into the buttered dish, then grate some nutmeg generously over the topuncooked egg custard
  5. Pour freshly boiled water into the tin, to come about halfway up the baking dish, and gingerly (you don't want slopping and spillage) put it into the oven and cook for 1½ hours. You want the custard to set but only justcooked egg custard
  6. Take the tin out of the oven, and the dish out of the tin, and let the custard cool a little before eating
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Adapted from Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Berry Delicious!

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Bowl of fresh bilberries | H is for Home

Our wild berry picking has started early this year. We were out foraging bilberries at the weekend. They love acid soil and are found on low-growing bushes in the surrounding area. The berries are small and picking them is quite time consuming – but, be patient, they’re well worth the effort!

Bilberry flan with Skinny la Minx tea towel | H is for Home

We put some in the freezer for future jam making and used the rest of our crop to make this bilberry custard tart. Here’s the recipe:

Slice of homemade bilberry custard tart

Bilberry custard tart

Course Dessert
Cuisine British

Ingredients
  

For the shortcrust pastry

  • 125 g/4oz plain flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 55 g/2oz butter cubed
  • 30-45 ml/2-3 tbsp cold water
  • (or you can buy a pack of ready-made in the chilled section of most supermarkets)

For the custard

  • 4 eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 475 ml/1pt milk
  • 55 g/2oz caster sugar

Instructions
 

  • You’ll need to collect about 225g/8oz bilberries. Remove stalks and stray leaves and rinse in a sieve.
    Dry carefully on some kitchen towel (Don’t use a tea towel unless you don’t mind it getting stained purple).

For the shortcrust pastry

  • Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and add the cubes of butter
  • Use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour until you have a mixture that resembles coarse breadcrumbs with no large lumps of butter remaining
  • Using a knife, stir in just enough of the cold water to bind the dough together
  • Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for 10-15 minutes before rolling out
  • Flour the worktop and roll out the pastry to about 1/2cm thick and 25cm/10inches in diameter (or large enough to fit over the dish you’re using)
  • Carefully lift the pastry and lay it over your dish, moulding it to the bottom & sides
  • Cut off any excess bits using a sharp knife
  • Pour in the washed & dried fresh bilberries

For the custard

  • Heat the milk gently in a pan
  • Whisk the eggs & egg yolks
  • Slowly add the milk to the egg mixture whisking continuously (make sure the milk’s not too hot or the eggs will scramble!)
  • Pour the mixture carefully through a sieve on to the bilberries in the dish
  • Preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF/Gas Mark 4. Cook the flan for 45 minutes or until the top begins to brown nicely. When cool, sprinkle a tablespoon of caster sugar over the top
Keyword bilberries, custard tart, tart

Slice of bilberry flan with sprig of mint | H is for Home

The tart looks fabulous with the deep purple juice seeping into the creamy custard…

Slice of bilberry custard tart with mug of tea | H is for Home

…and it tasted great too!