Elävä munakello

Lehdessä Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-communiaction for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. Vol. 4 2nd S. (86) Aug 22 1857, sivulla 145 herra Cuthbert Bede raportoi kuulleensa luotettavalta herrasmieheltä, että Suomessa maantien varren tuvassa oli munankeiton aika mitattu laulamalla tietty laulu määrätyt kerrat. Pari pyörähdystäkin kuului asiaan. Mitäs muutakaan olisi kellottomassa taloudessa tehty, mutta en kyllä ole moisesta aiemmin kuullut.

Alkuperäinen teksti:

A gentleman whose name is well known to the public, and who has gained a deservedly high reputation in the photographic and artistic world, told me, that when in Finland he called with some friends at a roadside cottage, and desired to be accommodated with some boiled eggs, a portion of which were to be boiled hard. The damsel who superintended the boiling chanted a sing-song charm during the culinary process. This she repeated twice, and turned herself round six times; the soft boiled eggs were then considered to be sufficiently done. She then repeated her verse for a third time, and turned herself round thrice; when the hard boiled eggs were deemed to be ready for eating. They had no clock, dial, clepsydra, hour-glass, burning of tapers, or any other method of measuring time necessary for the egg boiling, than this chanting of the song; and a like kind of formula was repeated for similar domestic purposes, these "household words" being supposed to depend for their efficacy upon the full belief in the charm they were presumed to cause. The application of this to the incantations of witches over the concoction of some "hell-broth" is sufficiently obvious.

Suomessa matkannutta ei näillä tiedoilla pysty selvittämään (vaikka valokuvaajia tuskin oli kovin montaa vuonna 1857?), mutta Wikipediasta löytyy yksi ehdokas Cuthbert Bedeksi.

Munista puheenollen, keittokirjassa Many Ways for Cooking Eggs osui hakuihini resepti Eggs à la Finnois eli munia suomalaisittain. Säilyketomaattia suomalaisempaa ei olekaan?