Fresh raw eggs

Remove egg from chicken coop and wash. Make a tiny little hole with a pin on the top of the egg and then suck the egg out.

Prior to World War II eggs were seen as the ultimate health food. When an individual was suffering from anemia (or tiredness) he would be encouraged to eat a raw egg each morning. The egg would be taken fresh from the chicken coop and washed. A small hole would be made on the top of the egg with a safety pin or needle and then the sick person would "suck" out the egg. In the 1950s straws became available and so they were then used to draw the raw egg out. Back then it seems that most individuals who sucked the egg out liked the taste of what they got so eating the raw egg was not perceived as being unpleasant or akin to drinking cod liver oil (Nothing like that!). In fact, in well-to-do households school-age children were often offered raw eggs each morning for breakfast. According to my aunt most children enjoyed eating the raw eggs, knowing that not only were the eggs good for them, but because only the rich could afford to have eggs for breakfast, they could consider themselves special. It seems that prior to World War II few individuals suffered any ill effects from the eating of raw eggs (Of course, there are no medical documents supporting this observation but most first-generation Italians would argue that when they were growing up in the 1930s there were many illnesses that people died from but food poisoning was not at the top of the list). Nowadays, of course, the eating of raw eggs is not recommended as one can get SALMONELLA poisoning. Obviously, today's factory-produced eggs are NOT the ultimate health food. However, up to the 1950s farmers in Molise took good care of their chickens (The chickens were grain-fed and free-roaming) so their eggs were not only good-tasting but very likely disease-free. However, many subsistence farmers (including my maternal grandparents) did not eat the eggs their chickens produced; they bartered their eggs for salt. At that time most subsistence farmers raised six or seven chickens at a time -- on a good day that would result in four or five eggs, and on a bad day, no eggs at all.... Photo: Mary Melfi.

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