Boiled Egg and Soldiers

Hi everyone, I *think* (hope) I have managed (with help) to get this blog set up to be emailed to you as it used to be. The new system I’m using is not easy! It should arrive in your in-box next Thursday or Friday, depending on your time zone, so . . . fingers crossed.

Anyway, today I’m talking about a really simple comfort food — a soft boiled egg with toast soldiers (see pic).  (They’re also called “dippy eggs” by some people. )
I’m writing about this riveting subject because I’ve mentioned them in a book before and I had a number of queries from readers who’d never heard of them before, and I’m also writing it into a new book at the moment.

It was a frequent meal when I was a child — generally breakfast, but occasionally supper.  And sometimes as an adult, it’s comfort food. I know it’s as popular in the UK as it is here in Australia but much less so in the USA, which surprised me at first.

But then I realized that a lot of people in the USA don’t have egg-cups. Here it’s pretty standard, especially when people have little kids, as the egg sits nice and firm in the egg-cup and a toddler can dip the toast soldiers in the egg yolk. Once that’s done, you use the little spoon to eat the rest.

And there are so many fun egg-cup designs. I have kept a few of mine from my childhood — one is a Grenadier Guard that I got one Easter with a chocolate egg in it. It’s chipped and the paint is peeling — must have been a cheap Easter gift — but it makes me smile. I still have my old Bunnykins egg-cup and mug, both of which are cracked and mended,  as well as a couple of silver ones, and one of the bright plastic ones that we kept in the caravan.

I’m especially fond of the bunnykins range. Royal Doulton still make them, and they make a lovely christening or birthday present for a baby or toddler. But as well as  plain egg cups there’s a wide range of novelty egg-cups — do a google image search and you’ll see what I mean.

The thing about being served a boiled egg and soldiers as an adult is that it’s a kind of pampering, a return to childhood, the feeling of being looked after and cared for. In The Autumn Bride, when the girls find old Lady Bea in a terrible state, they bathe her and clean her bedroom, and the final thing that brings her to tears (in a good way) is when Damaris brings her a boiled egg with toast soldiers.