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Spinach with Eggs
Prepare spinach as for the above recipe. Put it on a hot dish, smooth it with the blade of a knife, and mark it in squares. Place as many poached eggs as there are guests on the top of the spinach, or, if preferred, put them round it, each egg on a piece of buttered toast. Serve the whole very hot. If a superior dish is required, the spinach, after being boiled till tender, may be rubbed through a wire sieve, and the pulp heated with a slice of fresh butter, 1 tablespoonful of thick cream, and a little pepper and salt.
A plainly built dish of creamed spinach under poached eggs, written in the era when spinach was boiled in quantity and then dressed. The only real technique is the poaching, and the only real risk is watery spinach.
- The preceding recipeThe instruction to "prepare spinach as for the above recipe" points back to a plain boiled-spinach recipe not reproduced on this page; all the present text confirms is that the spinach is boiled till tender and drained. Spinach collapses to a fraction of its raw bulk, so allow generously when buying.
- Drain ruthlesslyThis is the hinge. Spinach holds an enormous amount of water, and if it is not pressed dry the butter and cream will not bind to it and the eggs will sit in a grey puddle. Press it in a sieve with the back of a spoon or wring it in a clean towel before it goes near the dish.
- Rubbing through a sieveThe "superior" version is simply pureed spinach. A food processor does the same work in seconds; the sieve produced smoothness and caught stalk fibre along the way, so trim coarse stems first if you are blending rather than sieving.
- A slice of fresh butterAn unmeasured lump, roughly 1 to 2 tablespoons for a pound of raw spinach. "Fresh" butter meant unsalted, as against the salted or barrelled butter kept for cooking; salt to taste at the end either way.
- Thick creamPeriod thick cream is close to modern heavy or double cream. One tablespoon is a light touch; two will give a smoother puree without turning it into a sauce.
- Poaching the eggsBarely simmering water with a splash of vinegar, 3 minutes for a set white and liquid yolk. Poach them before the spinach is plated, hold them in warm water, and drain each on a cloth so no water reaches the toast.
- Marking in squaresA period plating touch: the spinach is smoothed flat with a knife blade and scored in a grid so it looks deliberate rather than heaped. Purely decorative, and it survives well enough on a warmed platter.
- Yield and servingScaled by the guest, one egg each, so the spinach is the fixed element and the eggs are counted at the table. Serve on a hot dish; creamed spinach cools fast and dull warm spinach with a cold egg is the failure mode here.