Woman to briefly boil eggs, at the outset (7)
I believe the answer is:
blanche
'woman' is the definition.
'to briefly boil eggs at the outset' is the wordplay.
'to briefly boil' becomes 'blanch' (to blanch is to briefly immerse in boiling water).
'at the outset' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'eggs' is 'e'.
'blanch'+'e'='BLANCHE'
(Other definitions for blanche that I've seen before include "- of Castile was Queen to Louis VIII of France" , "Girl" , "Name of woman" , "dish from 4 26 21 [A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE]" , "Female" .)