Eggy Potential

 I often wonder who first saw the potential in an egg for cooking. 

Was it an accident? Did someone accidentally drop an egg into a frying pan and see how it turned out? 

Was it an experiment? Did someone have a play with a discarded egg and study the beauty within? 

Was it that someone saw an animal enjoying eating an egg and thought they'd give it a go?

Was it instinctive logic? Did they think well the meat is OK, so the egg must be too? 

Was it desperation? Maybe they were starving and it was the only thing to hand?

I google and it tells me nothing. 

And who first discovered the usefulness of eggs for cakes? As a baker, I am amazed at just what eggs do. This week I made a lemon curd swiss roll and the eggs both brought air into the sponge and thickened the lemon curd. Why does that happen and how do we know? 

And who decided to separate the white and the yolk and use the white for meringues and the yolk to make custard? How did they know? What did they do? Did they understand what was happening?

I google and I find why it happens - the science behind it is fascinating - but how we know? Nobody knows. 

Who saw the potential of an egg? 

In chaos, by chance, by experimentation, by mistake great potential is discovered. 

The Jazz musician improvises and discovers beauty in mismatched chords. 

A pendulum is knocked, spins for a bit and then settles unexpectedly into a rhythm.

The Worcester Sauce is added to the bolognese instead of wine and produces something tastier than it was before (remember that advert?).

The eggs in the cake bind, protect the air bubbles, create texture that is dreamy, hydrate, bring lightness and softness and joy to make the cake more delicious. 

The noticing, the tasting, the listening, the waiting, the experimenting, you never know what might happen. 

Press pause and discover. 

Potential was there even before it was discovered. 

Potential grown in chaos. 

Potential grown under the ground, in the darkness, in the depths, just waiting to burst forth. 

Sometimes in the every day we forget the potential is there. We walk over it, ignore it, leave it be for another day when life is less crazy and there is time to sit still. 

But in the darkness it whispers........ "I'm still here". 

As we think about hope, about future, about next, about promises made and not realised, as we shift our expectations and set up a new camp and wait another night, we must not forget that underneath all the wanting, there sits the next, and that in a blink of an unexpected moment, the thing we never knew would be so good will be born. 

"If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be" - Maya Angelou

"Those who wait upon God get fresh strength. The spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind" - Isaiah 40:31 (The Message)