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Eggs, Croustade Of
Stamp out some rounds of bread, hollow out the centres carefully, butter them well, and fill with the following mixture. Melt two ounces of butter in a pan with two tea-spoonfuls of finely-chopped onion, a tea-cupful of bread-crumbs, two finely-minced hard-boiled eggs, a small quantity of good gravy or stock, and salt and pepper to taste. Let them stew for five minutes; squeeze a little lemon-juice over, and bake them in a moderate oven for five minutes. Garnish with mustard and cress.
A Victorian savoury: bread cases filled with a buttery egg and crumb mixture, browned briefly and served hot. The recipe is workable as written, but a few of its instructions assume kitchen habits that have gone.
- The hinge: dry the cases firstStale, close-textured bread cut about 1½ in. thick and 2 in. across holds its shape; fresh sliced bread collapses. Butter the hollowed rounds inside and out and crisp them in the oven for 8-10 minutes before filling, or the base goes sodden under the moist stuffing.
- "A moderate oven"350F/180C. Five minutes at that heat only warms the filling through, which is all it needs — everything in it is already cooked. If you want colour, finish under the grill for a minute.
- A tea-cupfulVictorian teacups run smaller than modern mugs: reckon about 5-6 fl oz, roughly three-quarters of a modern cup of crumbs. Adjust with the stock rather than measuring precisely.
- "A small quantity of good gravy or stock"Start with 3-4 tablespoons and add more only as the crumbs drink it up. The mixture should mound on a spoon, not pour; too wet and it soaks straight through the bread.
- Sweat the onion properlyTwo teaspoons of raw chopped onion will not soften in the few minutes the crumbs are stewing. Give it 3-4 minutes in the butter alone before the crumbs and egg go in.
- Mustard and cressThe standard Victorian garnish, still sold in punnets in Britain; salad cress, young watercress or pea shoots all serve. Add it after baking — it wilts instantly on a hot croustade.
- YieldThe quantities fill about eight to ten small cases, enough for four as a savoury course or a light lunch dish with salad.
A croustade is a hollowed case of fried or baked bread, later of pastry or potato, used as an edible container for something soft; the word goes back to crust. The device was common in nineteenth-century English kitchens working in the French manner. Dishes of this kind were often served as the savoury, the small hot course that closed a Victorian and Edwardian dinner after the sweet and before dessert, and which was expected to be sharp or salty rather than rich — hence the lemon juice and the peppery mustard and cress here. Cassell's, aimed at middle-class households, is full of such recipes because they made a respectable course out of very little: stale bread, a couple of hard-boiled eggs and a spoonful of yesterday's gravy.