An odd egg measurement, to be sure, but there’s method to the madness. Read the reminder to simplify your life.
You might not be used to using 7/8ths of a pint of eggs, but if you got your eggs directly from the chickens, you’d come to find out that chickens aren’t very good at sorting eggs by size. In such instances, there’s no way to know the volume of raw egg you’ll get from breaking a set number of eggs except to measure it.
So if you find yourself on a farm trying to use a modern recipe, it’s best to multiply the number of large eggs by 3.25, then use that many tablespoons of eggs broken into a measuring cup.
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A family recipe provided by Jennifer Kiel of Washington, DC, from her mother-in-law’s collection, started in Kent, Ohio. |
Banana Tea Bread
7 cups flour
1-1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tbsp. baking soda
1/2 tbsp. salt
2 lbs. ripe bananas, peeled
1-3/8 cups shortening
2-3/8 cups sugar
7/8 pint eggs [8 whole eggs and 1 egg white; see Yesterdish reminder, below]
Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Place banansa in a mixer bowl and beat at medium speed until they are thoroughly mashed. Add shortening, sugar and eggs and continue mixing at medium speed for one minute. Add flour mixture and continue beating at low speed for about 30 seconds or until well blended. Do not overbeat. Scrape down bowl and beaters once or twice.
Turn into greased loaf pans (8-1/2 x 4-1/2 x 3″) and bake at 350 degrees about one hour and ten minutes, or until bread is done. For variations, add one pint of broken nut meats or one quart of raisins. This makes four loaves.
Yesterdish reminder: A large egg, white and yolk, equals about three and a quarter tablespoons in volume. So a pint is two cups and a cup is 16 tablespoons; that means 7/8ths of a pint is 28 tablespoons, or about 8.615~ eggs. Due to certain obstacles of logistics in obtaining 8.615~ eggs. you might want to try 8 whole eggs and 1 egg white.