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Eggs Stuffed with Anchovies
Allow 1 anchovy to each egg. Boil the eggs hard. Cool, remove the shells, and cut in two lengthwise. Bone and skin the anchovies, and mash or pound them in a mortar with the yolks, adding a piece of butter the size of a yolk, a teaspoonful of lemon juice, a dash of cayenne, a very little grated nutmeg, and salt to taste.
Fill each half of the whites with this mixture; put them in a baking-tin, and put in a hot oven until thoroughly heated. Serve with rounds of crisp, well-buttered toast.
A straightforward deviled-egg filling given a savoury edge with anchovy, then warmed through rather than served cold. The only real pitfall is salt and heat: the anchovies bring plenty of the first, and too much of the second turns the whites tough.
- AnchoviesThe recipe assumes whole salt- or brine-packed anchovies, hence the instruction to bone and skin. Two oil-packed fillets from a tin equal one whole anchovy; drain and blot them, and skip the boning.
- Butter the size of a yolkAbout 1 tablespoon, softened. Note that the recipe gives one fixed piece of butter (and one teaspoonful of lemon juice) whatever the number of eggs, so judge by texture -- the mixture should be smooth and pipeable, not greasy.
- Salt to taste, and mean itTaste the filling before adding any salt. Salt-packed anchovies can carry enough on their own that no more is wanted.
- A hot ovenRoughly 400 to 450F in period terms. The eggs are already cooked, so this is only to heat through -- five to eight minutes is ample. Longer and the whites go rubbery and weep.
- Mortar or machineA small food processor does the pounding in seconds, but the yolks turn pasty if overworked. Mashing with a fork and then beating smooth gives a lighter result.
- Keeping the halves uprightTrim a sliver from the rounded side of each white, or set them in a lightly oiled muffin tin, so the filling does not slide off in the oven.
- YieldTwo halves per person as a savoury or hors d'oeuvre; six eggs and six anchovies serve six. Cut the toast rounds slightly wider than the egg halves.