What are the secrets of eggs? According to www.eggsecret.com, the secret ingredient seems to be organ meats. I decided to prepare two egg secret recipes from this website because I have a hard time believing that anyone else would ever want to.

Recipe #1 is for deviled egg salad. Who has 1/2 cup of chopped boiled tongue sitting in their fridge? And why would you want to baste eggs with French dressing?

6 eggs
1 head of lettuce
1 pimiento
1 teaspoonful of onion juice
1/2 teaspoonful of paprika
1/2 cupful of chopped boiled tongue
1 saltspoonful of salt
1 saltspoonful of pepper
Hard-boil the eggs, throw them into cold water, remove the shells, cut them lengthwise. Take out the yolks without breaking the whites. Rub the yolks through a sieve into a bowl, then add the tongue and all the seasoning. If the mixture is dry add a tablespoonful or two of cream or olive oil. Roll the mixture into balls that will fit the spaces from which they were taken in the whites, making each ball round. Arrange the lettuce over a platter, stand the whites in the lettuce, and at serving time baste thoroughly with French dressing.

I had to make substitutions - collard greens instead of lettuce, half a yellow bell pepper plus Vietnamese hot sauce instead of pimento, garlic powder instead of onion juice, and chili powder instead of paprika. I accidentally used a teaspoon of salt and pepper rather than a saltspoon, and all I can say is that I bet a saltspoon is a lot smaller. The eggs came out rather salty.

Recipe #2 is for eggs A La Trinidad. Anything that starts with "split the kidneys, cut out the tubes" has got to be good.

6 eggs
2 lamb’s kidneys
1 cupful of fresh bread crumbs
2 level tablespoonfuls of butter
2 level tablespoonfuls of flour
1/2 pint of stock
1 teaspoonful of kitchen bouquet
1/2 teaspoonful of salt
1 saltspoonful of pepper
Split the kidneys, cut out the tubes; scald them, drain, and cut them into thin slices. Put the butter into a saucepan, add the kidneys, toss until the kidneys are cooked, then add the flour, stock, kitchen bouquet, salt and pepper; stir until boiling. Grease a shallow granite or silver platter, break into it the eggs, sprinkle over the bread crumbs and stand them in the oven until the eggs are “set,” then pour over the sauce, arrange the kidneys around the edge of the dish and send at once to the table.

I had to use pork kidney instead of lamb, because I couldn't locate any lamb kidney. Also, they were pre-split and de-tubed. I didn't have fresh bread crumbs so I used mashed pretzels. It turns out that kitchen bouquet is cooked brown sugar and water, so I made my own. This actually turned out fine, but the texture of the kidneys was firm and homogeneous, almost like extra firm tofu but more fibrous. I like liver, tongue, gizzard, heart, and all that stuff just fine. In fact, I am cooking duck gizzard now and have some pig ear in my fridge, but this was the first time I've had kidney. I can't say I'd order it at a restaurant or cook it again.

(Sorry the pics are blurry. I'm using a $10 camera from Walgreens which has (1) no focus (2) no view finder (3) minimal pixels)