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Eggs and Spinach
Prepare some spinach by washing very carefully, and then boiling till tender. Put into cold water to keep the color good, and when quite cold press the water out of it, a little at a time, in a towel. Chop it very fine, and put it into a stewpan with a lump of butter and some rich gravy. Boil it quickly in this, and add pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Or it may be stewed with cream and a little sugar, which is a very delicate method. Poach 6 eggs, and trim them neatly. Serve them upon the spinach. Time, ten to fifteen minutes to boil; five minutes to stew. Sufficient for three persons.
A straightforward dish of poached eggs on buttered spinach, with the period's habit of blanching, shocking and pressing the greens before they are ever seasoned. The instructions are sound; only the timings and a couple of vessels need translating.
- Quantity of spinachThe recipe gives no weight. For three people, count on about 2 lb of mature spinach with stems, or roughly 1 lb of bagged leaf, which cooks down to a scant cup or so once pressed.
- Boiling timeThe recipe allows ten to fifteen minutes, a timing that suits tough, full-grown market spinach rather than modern leaf. Modern leaf spinach is tender in one to two minutes in boiling salted water, and longer than that gives a drab, olive-grey result.
- The cold-water step mattersPlunging into cold water is what keeps the colour; it is not fussiness. Do it in a bowl of iced water and drain the moment the spinach is cold, or the leaves waterlog.
- PressingSqueezing small handfuls in a towel is still the best method. Wet spinach will thin the gravy or cream and slide off the plate.
- StewpanAny wide, heavy saucepan. "A lump of butter" is about 2 tablespoons for this quantity.
- Rich gravyThis means concentrated meat stock or the reduced pan juices from a roast, not a thickened flour gravy. A few tablespoons of well-reduced brown stock does the job; otherwise take the cream variation.
- The cream versionCream and a pinch of sugar with the chopped spinach is the gentler route, described in the recipe as 'a very delicate method'. Keep the sugar to a scant teaspoon for this amount - it is there to soften the sharpness of the leaf, not to sweeten.
- PoachingTrimming the ragged edges off a poached egg is worth the minute it takes. Water barely trembling, a splash of vinegar, three minutes for a set white and liquid yolk; the freshest eggs hold their shape best.
- YieldSix eggs on spinach serves three as a light lunch or supper dish, as stated. Toast underneath turns it into a fuller meal.