In breaking eggs care should be taken not to break the yolk, as in most cases eggs are spoilt when the yolk is broken; as, for instance, poached eggs, fried eggs, etc. First, recollect eggs should always be broken separately into a vessel, and not dropped one on to another, as one bad one would then spoil the lot. To break an egg, take a basin, and hold the egg in one hand and the basin with the other; give the egg a little smart tap in the middle on the edge of the basin. Then take the egg in your two hands, put it crack downwards, holding it as low as you can in the basin, and gently open it upwards, like a hinge. Avoid letting the contents drop any distance. The two half eggshells should be two cups nearly the same size.

In breaking an egg, when you want to separate the yolks from the whites, proceed as before; but instead of holding the egg over the basin crack downwards, hold it sideways, with the big end downwards. Now open the egg like a hinge, and a quantity of white will run over into the basin, but the yolk and some of the white will keep in the hollow cup or eggshell. Then pass the yolk from one shell into the other very gently, and in doing this try and drop as much of the white as you can. You will find this easy, and very soon you will have the yolk quite free from the white.