This is a dish surrounded by folklore. I’ve seen all kinds of different versions of the recipe’s origins on the internet, but they all boil down to pretty much the same thing: Eggs Goldenrod is a simple way to make everyday ingredients fancy enough for a special holiday brunch. The earliest iterations I’ve found online are from the 1940’s, but I suspect it goes back much farther, at least to the Depression. Eggs would have been a treat for some at the time, and this is a way to stretch them into a rich, satisfying meal fit for company, and one that can feed a crowd. As for me, I’ve got my own family story about Eggs Goldenrod.
Every Christmas morning, my Grandma (Fran) would hover over her stove and make a huge batch of this for all of us. My parents, brother, and I would get up early at our house next door to open presents, and then Grandma would call us to let us know breakfast was ready. (“Yeah, are you coming up? Breakfast is ready.”) I’d run “up front” in my new Christmas pajamas, usually carrying one or two toys to show off to my cousins.
We’re a big family on my mom’s side. Her parents had 3 daughters, and they each married and had kids of their own, for a total of nine grandchildren. Add in my grandparents and a few extended family members, and you’ve got quite a crowd on Christmas day. It wasn’t a big house or a big kitchen. We didn’t care. A wood burning stove sat in the corner, and in the center of the kitchen was a table that really didn’t fit all of us, but we made it work.
Grandma poured Eggs Goldenrod on top of little Holland Rusk toasts alongside sausage or bacon. On the counter, there were plates of sweet pastries and freshly cut oranges and strawberries. Looking back, it wasn’t a big lavish thing, but it felt fancy and special. And really, it was. The house was warm, there was usually Christmas music wafting in from an old CD player (it was the ’90s…), and on really lucky years, snow fell outside, landing softly in the surrounding woods as the sun rose above the trees.
That’s what the holidays are all about, right? It’s so much deeper than the food. (Although the food was very good!) It was the care she always put into making memories for all of us. Hard boiling, chopping, slicing, stirring a roux in a warped antique cast iron skillet from the very early hours in the dark of her kitchen. Setting out the good china, piling them high with sweet rolls and coffee cakes. The fresh fruit that we could get any time of year but on Christmas somehow tasted like a delicacy.
All of it boils down to love.
Our beloved Grandma has gone on to her great reward, and, logistically, my extended family can no longer gather for every single holiday. But on many Christmas mornings, my cousins and I still swap photos of our breakfasts or post them to social media. It’s always Eggs Goldenrod. The humble yet fancy dish is a link, an indelible memory we share–one of many, thanks to her.
Merry Christmas.