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Beauregard Eggs
Take as many hard-boiled eggs as desired, remove shells and separate whites and yolks; chop the whites fine and stir into a cream sauce made of butter, flour and milk; season, and pour over slices of toast moistened with hot water; then rub yolks through a sieve or put through a potato ricer and sprinkle lightly over top or pile around edge of dish.
— Mrs. George S. Harding
A simple creamed-egg dish that depends entirely on the sauce and the timing of assembly. Nothing here is dated beyond the toast treatment, but a few proportions are left to the cook.
- ProportionsFor four servings, use 4 hard-boiled eggs and a cream sauce from 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk. That gives a sauce thick enough to sit on toast rather than run off it.
- Season means more than saltThe original leaves seasoning open. Salt, white pepper and a scrape of nutmeg or a dash of cayenne are the period-appropriate choices; the sauce is bland without something sharp.
- Cook the flourLet the butter and flour bubble together a minute or two before the milk goes in, or the sauce carries a raw, pasty taste that the eggs will not cover.
- Moistened with hot waterPeriod cookbooks sometimes call for damping dry toast before saucing it, presumably so it takes up the sauce without going to paste. A quick dip, not a soak, and only if the toast is genuinely dry; well-buttered fresh toast needs no help.
- Boiling the eggsTwelve minutes in barely simmering water, then straight into cold water, gives firm yolks without the greenish ring and grey edge that come from a hard boil.
- The riced yolksPush the yolks through a sieve or ricer while they are cool and dry. Warm or damp yolks clog the mesh and come through as a paste rather than a fine golden crumb.
- Assemble at the last minuteThe toast goes soft within a few minutes of saucing. Have the sauce hot, the yolks riced and the toast made, then plate and serve.
Eggs Beauregard belongs to a small family of American creamed-egg dishes traditionally said to be named after Confederate general P. G. T. Beauregard, though the connection is traditional rather than documented. The pattern is the same wherever it appears: chopped whites bound in a white sauce, riced yolks scattered over the top for color, all of it on toast. Dishes like this one earned their place because they were cheap, quick, and made from what a household already had.