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I ready this in a Christopher Hitchens piece in Slate. It seems to be used mostly in a negative sorts of constructions, as with Hitchens: "So let us not over-egg the pudding." Similarly, "don't overegg the pudding", "lest we overegg the pudding", etc.
Just what does it mean? Where does it come from? It of course sounds British, but what are the eggs about? What would the consequences be of having too many eggs in a pudding?
I have heard this before and it always referred to putting too many things together in an effort to try and make it better. It seems to me (and I am taxing the brain to remember some of the times I have heard it used) that it would be used similarly to "too many cooks spoil the..." but more when it was the content at issue and not the process.
I can't vouch for its accuracy, but I liked this explanation of the culinary derivation (http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/57/messages/1072.html):
"But puddings such as Yorkshire pudding, bread-and-butter pudding, etc. need the right quantity of eggs. You mustn't be mean with the eggs - you have to use enough or they won't hold together - but you mustn't be too lavish either. If you over-egg the pudding it goes unpleasantly rubbery."
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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