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EGGS (a la Gruyere)
Melt a quarter of a pound of Gruyere cheese in a stewpan over a slow fire, with a small quantity of butter, a quarter of a pint of veal stock, a seasoning of finely-minced chives, parsley, grated nutmeg, and salt. Add, as soon as the cheese has been well stirred with the other ingredients, four well-beaten eggs, and stir till the herbs are sufficiently done. Serve with sippets of toasted bread.
A cheese-thickened scramble rather than an omelette, and the whole thing turns on heat control: the cheese must melt without the eggs setting into curds too fast.
- The hinge: low heat throughout"A slow fire" means the lowest burner setting, and it applies after the eggs go in as well. Gruyère broken over direct heat goes stringy and weeps fat, and the eggs will scramble hard before the mixture has a chance to come together. Pull the pan off the heat intermittently if it is moving too quickly.
- QuantitiesA quarter of a pound of Gruyère is 4 oz (115 g); grate it rather than cubing it so it melts evenly. A quarter of an imperial pint is 5 fl oz, a little over half a US cup.
- StewpanA stewpan is a straight-sided saucepan with a lid. Use a heavy small saucepan or a nonstick sauté pan; thin metal will scorch the cheese.
- Veal stockRarely sold now. A mild unsalted chicken stock is the closest stand-in; avoid dark beef stock, which will overwhelm the cheese. Season with salt only at the end, since Gruyère is already salty.
- "Till the herbs are sufficiently done"An unhelpful cue. Cook only until the eggs thicken to a loose, pourable custard that just coats the spoon, roughly two to four minutes on low heat. It will continue to set in the serving dish.
- SippetsNarrow fingers or triangles of toasted bread, served around the edge of the dish for dipping. Cut them before you start the eggs.
- YieldFour eggs and 4 oz of cheese serves two as a light supper or lunch dish, or four as a savoury course.
Gruyère takes its name from the district of Gruyère in the Swiss canton of Fribourg, and by the nineteenth century it was among the foreign cheeses available to British cooks, valued because it melted smoothly rather than separating. The recipe sits among the egg dishes, where "à la" tags often signal a defining ingredient rather than any particular regional dish: à la Gruyère simply means made with that cheese. The combination of melted cheese, stock, herbs and beaten egg sits somewhere between a fondue and scrambled eggs, and belongs to a family of chafing-dish and breakfast-room savouries — Welsh rarebit among them — used for quick supper courses. The veal stock reflects a kitchen in which stock was kept to hand, going into dishes that would now be made with milk or cream.