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EGGS (a la Bonne Femme)
Get six eggs of the same size, large ones, boil them ten minutes, and when cool enough, remove the shells carefully. Divide them equally in halves crosswise, take out the yolks and cut from each the pointed tip of white that they may stand flatly. Make tiny dice of some cold chicken, ham, boiled beetroot, and the yolks of the eggs. Fill the hollows with these up to the brim, and pile the dice high in the center--two of ham and chicken, or separately, two of boiled beetroot, and two with the hard yolks. Arrange some neatly-cut lettuce on a dish, and place the eggs amongst it. Sufficient for three persons.
A cold hors d'oeuvre built on hard-boiled eggs used as edible cups. The only real technique is the boiling and peeling; everything after that is knife work.
- Ten minutes is too longTen minutes in boiling water gives a chalky yolk and a grey-green ring at the edge. Eight minutes for large eggs, then straight into cold water, gives a firm yolk that still tastes of egg and dices cleanly.
- PeelingEggs a week or two old shell far more easily than very fresh ones. Cracking the cooled egg all over and starting at the wide end, under running water, saves the white — which matters here because the halves are on show.
- Crosswise, not lengthwiseThe instruction is deliberate: halved across the middle and with the pointed tip trimmed off, each half stands upright as a cup. Cut lengthwise and the dish collapses into a plate of devilled eggs.
- Beetroot"Boiled beetroot" means whole beets cooked in their skins until tender, then peeled and diced — not the sharp pickled beet sold in jars, which will bleed vinegar into the filling. Dice it last and keep it separate, as it stains the chicken and egg pink on contact.
- Cold chicken and hamThis is a use-up recipe for the remains of a roast bird and a boiled ham. Poached chicken breast and a thick slice of good cooked ham work as well; cut everything to a uniform 3–4 mm dice so the piles sit neatly.
- The pilesSix eggs give twelve halves, but the recipe as written accounts for only six fillings: two of ham and chicken (or each separately), two of boiled beetroot, and two of the diced yolks. However the arithmetic is resolved, the visual point is blocks of contrasting colour against green lettuce, so keep the fillings unmixed.
- BindingNothing holds the dice together in the original, so they tumble. A very small spoonful of mayonnaise or a mustard vinaigrette turned through each filling before it goes in solves this without changing the look.
- Yield and serving"Sufficient for three persons" works out at four egg-halves each with lettuce; as a modern starter or lunch plate it would stretch to four to six. Assemble within an hour or two of serving and keep chilled.
"À la bonne femme" — in the manner of the good wife — is French kitchen shorthand for plain, homely, unsauced cooking, the sort of dish assembled from what is already in the larder rather than built from a stock and a roux. This recipe sits squarely in that tradition: the cold chicken and ham are leftovers, the beetroot is a cheap winter vegetable, and the only real cost is presentation. Stuffed and garnished hard-boiled eggs of this kind were a fixture of the Victorian and Edwardian cold table and of the hors d'oeuvre variés that opened a formal meal, where several small dishes of contrasting colour were set out together. The trimming of the egg tip so each half stands flat is a small detail of presentation, keeping even a leftovers dish tidy on the plate.