★ 12/06/2021
Fresh Eggs Daily blogger Steele (Duck Eggs Daily) lays down as many tips and recipes as her chickens do eggs in this innovative and plucky collection. Combining her expertise as a fifth-generation chicken keeper in Maine with inspiration from her Scandinavian forebears, she succeeds at her aim to share “unique and creative ways to use eggs” in delectable recipes that run the gamut from eggs in a hole to frothy cocktails. Eggs are baked inside roasted rings of butternut squash as a healthy way to bring together protein and veg, while a plate of egg yolk ravioli on marina sauce is made “deceptively simple” thanks to wonton wrappers. Recipe headnotes contain helpful pointers—such as dry-shaking egg whites with an acid before adding ice for optimal foam in one’s lime bourbon sour, and that a turmeric-vinegar soak ensures a stunning presentation for deviled eggs. In addition to sharing basic cooking and curing techniques, she weighs in on whether fresh eggs are really better (they are) and divulges insider info on how commercial eggs are graded and coded. Most unexpected of the lot—and highly useful—is the book’s recipe index listed by the number of eggs needed. This will be hard to beat. Agent: John Maas, Park & Fine Literary. (Feb.)
