How do you like your eggs?

No one mentioned torta espanol. But I guess that's as much a potato dish as an egg dish.

Quiche?

Certainly a bullock driver or bullocky is a term known to older Aussies and I imagine they ate a hearty breakfast, I should Say eat in the present tense as we met a chapdown in Tassie who still has a working bullock team. But their toast, I await Enlightment from Matilda.
We could start a conversation on Ozisms re food,but we probably shouldn't
eg cocky's joy.

Bullock driver's toast was a breakfast treat in our family. It's just eggy bread.

You need some slices of bread - white is best for this. Whip up one egg for each slice of bread. Soak the bread in the egg for as long as you can manage, so the egg soaks all the way through. Turn the slices over to make sure it's well-egged. Fry it on both sides - use butter, or bacon fat if you've been cooking bacon. Although my father used to make noises about beef dripping being the right thing. The egg should be cooked through, but still soft in the middle of the slice. Shake a bit of pepper and salt over it, and eat it while it's hot.

As well as talking about beef dripping, my father suggested the correct way to cook this was not in a frypan but on a shovel over an open fire. I have never tried this myself.

And Barb, I'd love to meet up with a bloke who has a working bullock team. Which part of Tasmania was this?

BTW Robin, bullockies would have driven more than a yoke of oxen. Bullock teams of up to 30 bullocks were the norm back in the day. I've never seen one myself - the internal combustion engine had been invented by the time I was born.

[Robin Garr]

BTW Robin, bullockies would have driven more than a yoke of oxen. Bullock teams of up to 30 bullocks were the norm back in the day. I've never seen one myself - the internal combustion engine had been invented by the time I was born.

Thanks for the info, Matilda! I don't think there's anyone old enough to remember the days before combustion engines!

Barb, thanks.

For an American version of the bullock team, there was a to-be-famous politician and lightweight Hollywood actor who bread-and-buttered as intro/narrator/voiceover for a popular tv show back in the 1950s. Episodic western/frontier stores, with Ronald Reagan. The sponsor was Boraxo, a then well-known cleanser; seems there was a large source of borax in Death Valley, so each episode of Death Valley Days would begin with the famous "twenty mule team" hauling borax out of the desert.

Even further back, and perhaps more apropos, on the early Eastern US frontier, bullock or oxen teams were used for many chores because of their steady pulling strength. Bullocks yielded eventually to mules as the dominant work animal. These teams would haul transport, pull the canal barges so important to riverine commerce then. The drivers were called "muleskinners" by then.

As a very young child in the Southern US, I clearly remember my Grandfather, an old farmer, a rail-thin, not too tall, rawboned whipcord of a man who was quite adept at working with mules. He was in demand all over the area for his dexterity at handled a double mule team in harness to clear timber and clear deadwood. It was a rarefied art to work with the often intransigent, bad-tempered mules, who were also intelligent enough to scheme causing you bodily harm. You had to develop a working relationship with the mules and condition them to responding to a slight twitch of the harness reins or a noise ("Yee" meant go in one direction; "Haw" meant go in another direction, for instance.) It was an impressive thing, watching my grandfather work that team of mules.

(My father, not quite as adept or intuitive, forgot the capriciousness and malice of mules once as a boy, and walked behind one, then stopped. The mule looked back, kicked out with his hind hooves, and threw my father end over end into the back wall of the barn. He was lucky: he wasn't seriously injured (well, by their standards then), and recovered with only a telltale scar above his upper lip that he would display for the rest of his life. My grandfather, according to legend, wasn't too sympathetic with my father, telling him that the necessity to working with mules was, first, realizing how devious and malicious they were, and second, making a point of always being smarter than the mule.)

One of our most famous western characters of legend was a muleskinner (among other things): Calamity Jane, who made her living driving mule teams across the west, most famously into Deadwood, and sometimes in the company of soon-to-be-deceased Wild Bill Hickok.

It's possible to eat mule, isn't it?

Matilda,
The guy we met was a tour operator on a boat on the Pieman river on the west coast. Whilst he was giving us a walk around of the forest area He mentioned that he used his bullock team when he had chosen and felled a tree for a light pole! An occasional event only, apparently, and in contrast to his brother who was into clear felling. He was very Eco minded. This was maybe six or seven years ago.
There were two tours on the river and he was on the old boat.
You don't cook your toast on a shovel? Shame on you and it would be nice with some cockys joy, non?

It's possible to eat mule, isn't it?

Possible? Sure.

Why?

It's possible to eat mule, isn't it?

Possible? Sure.

Why?

Because we don't much.

And that'll serve 'em right for kicking at people.

it would be nice with some cockys joy, non?

Oui!

[Robin Garr]

it would be nice with some cockys joy, non?

Oui!

Known to the rest of the English-speaking world as treacle?

It's possible to eat mule, isn't it?

Possible? Sure.

Why?

Because we don't much.

And that'll serve 'em right for kicking at people.

My father would have wholeheartedly agreed with that sentiment.

it would be nice with some cockys joy, non?

Oui!

Known to the rest of the English-speaking world as treacle?

Indeed or golden syrup. Give the gentleman an ANZAC biscuit.

I voted sunnyside up. But I often baste as well. I like scrambled but 95% of people and restaurants overcook them. So I should say, I like my scrambled eggs.

I love poached but it is more work for me. And rarely is it done properly other than maybe high end restaurants.

Jason

I made some four-eyed basted eggs the other day: I added two leftover yolks into a pan with two whole eggs!

Ah, jeff,that's where the two egg yolks ended up (see I was paying attention)

Apropos poached eggs whilst I'm here, I hate it when people put vinegar in the cooking water, I really, really hate that. It is unnecessary if you have any concept of egg cookery and totally wrecks, the taste of the egg which should be delicate and ...drum roll.... eggy.
Now thinking of Jeff and your pint of milk, now the egg yolks are done. I have never considered poaching eggs in milk, has any one tried this

[Robin Garr]

Apropos poached eggs whilst I'm here, I hate it when people put vinegar in the cooking water, I really, really hate that. It is unnecessary if you have any concept of egg cookery and totally wrecks, the taste of the egg which should be delicate and ...drum roll.... eggy.

Yes! Exactly!

Ah, jeff,that's where the two egg yolks ended up (see I was paying attention)

Apropos poached eggs whilst I'm here, I hate it when people put vinegar in the cooking water, I really, really hate that. It is unnecessary if you have any concept of egg cookery and totally wrecks, the taste of the egg which should be delicate and ...drum roll.... eggy.

Agreed. I never thought the vinegar taste was worth whatever firmness it might bring to the whites.

Now thinking of Jeff and your pint of milk, now the egg yolks are done. I have never considered poaching eggs in milk, has any one tried this

I have not but I don't see why it should fail.

Whilst I voted otherwise I'd like to give a heads up for soft boiled eggs with buttery toast soldiers and pink salt flakes. Served in proper egg cups with a teeny spoon. A dish to be enjoye privately with a proper cup of tea. Ahhh.

[Robin Garr]

Whilst I voted otherwise I'd like to give a heads up for soft boiled eggs with buttery toast soldiers and pink salt flakes. Served in proper egg cups with a teeny spoon. A dish to be enjoye privately with a proper cup of tea. Ahhh.

Okay, here we go again with the separate languages. Are toast soldiers cut into strips so they look like soldiers standing all in a row?

Another ANZAC biscuit to the gentleman. Yep, thin strips which one can dip into the yolk. One of the reasons for private consumption, in case of dribbling your down your shirt front