eggcup n : dishware consisting of a small cup for serving a boiled egg [syn: egg cup]

English

Alternative spellings

• egg cup

Noun

1. A small dish used to support a boiled egg whilst being eaten.

Translations

• Finnish: munakuppi
• French: coquetier
• German: Eierbecher
• Italian: portauovo
• Maltese: uviera
• Scottish Gaelic: glainn'-uighe
• Swedish: äggkopp

An egg cup, sometimes called eggshell cup or egg server, is a container used for serving boiled eggs within their shell. Egg cups have an upwardly concave portion to hold the egg and often include a base to raise the egg retaining portion and give stability, informally known as "footies". Other types include: no pedestal, just a cup known as "buckets" and egg-sized on one side and bigger on the other end known as "doubles".

They can be made of china, pottery, wood, plastic, glass and various metals.

The Egg cup is a collectible item. There are newsletters for egg cup collectors, "Eggcup Collectors'Corner" in the U.S., there are also egg cup conventions for collectors in England. Collecting egg cups is called Pocillovy; it comes from the Latin pocillum for small cup and ovi for eggs.

The first cocktail (the Sazerac) was made in an egg cup. A New Orleans bartender named Glen Skidmore in the early 1800s invented a mixed drink of absinthe, brandy and bitters which he served in an egg cup.

History

Eggshell cups have been used since prehistoric times, with some of the earliest occurrence on Minoan Crete. In particular, archaeological recovery at the Bronze Age palace of Cretan Knossos reveals the presence of eggshell cup use as early as the 18th century BC.

External links

• Egg cups
• An Egg Cup A Day

References