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Eggs, Poached, in Gravy
Take quite fresh eggs, break half a dozen into separate tea-cups, and slip each very gently into a stewpan of boiling water, one pint in quantity, to which has been added a wine-glassful of vinegar and a tea-spoonful of salt, previously boiled, but set to cool. Put the stewpan over the fire, and as the eggs set, remove them with a slicer into a large flat dish, and be very careful not to break them. Trim, drain, and serve them in a rich brown gravy. Probable cost, 7d. or 8d. Sufficient for three persons.
A plain Victorian poach finished in brown gravy. Two details in the original are worth adjusting: the volume of vinegar and the depth of water.
- Water depthOne pint will not cover six eggs in any ordinary stewpan, and crowded eggs stick together. Use a wide pan with at least two inches of water and poach two or three at a time.
- The vinegarA wine-glassful was a loose measure, generally reckoned at something like 2 to 2 1/2 fl oz; in a single pint of water that is a strongly acid poaching liquor, which sets the white fast but can leave a sour edge. Roughly a tablespoon per quart is the usual modern proportion and does the same job.
- Temperature is the hingeTemperature -- The original is ambiguous: it calls the water boiling, while 'previously boiled, but set to cool' seems to describe the vinegar-and-salt liquor added to it. Either way, a rolling boil shreds the whites; modern practice is to hold the water barely shivering, around 180-190F. No temperature is given in the book itself.
- "As the eggs set"For a soft yolk that is three to four minutes from the moment the egg is slipped in. The white should be opaque and the yolk still yielding to a fingertip.
- Freshness matters hereThe recipe's insistence on "quite fresh" eggs is not decoration. Older whites are thin and spread into rags; fresh ones hold a compact oval and need less vinegar to do it.
- TrimmingLift each egg onto a folded cloth or paper to drain, then cut away the ragged skirt of white with a knife or the edge of a cutter. Wet eggs will thin the gravy on the plate.
- The rich brown gravyNo formula is given here. A period 'rich brown gravy' would normally be a meat gravy browned and thickened with flour, or a well-reduced beef stock thickened and strained.
- Cost and yield7d. or 8d. is Victorian retail pricing and tells you only that this was a cheap dish. Six eggs for three people, two each, matches the recipe's 'Sufficient for three persons' and suits a light supper or savoury course.
Poached eggs served in a brown sauce sit at the point where nursery food meets the dinner table: the egg costs pennies, while the gravy presumes a kitchen already making stock and thickenings for other courses. Vinegar in the poaching water was common advice in English cookery books of the period; the acid helps set the outer white before it can disperse. The same egg, differently sauced, acquires a name of its own in later French codification; here it is left unnamed and simply described.