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Truffles with Eggs
Take a large truffle, clean and pare it, cut it into small pieces, and simmer it in a little butter over a gentle fire for five or six minutes. Drain it, and put it into a clean stewpan with 2 ounces of fresh butter, half a dozen fresh eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of thick cream, and a little pepper, salt, and grated nutmeg. Stir this mixture with a wooden spoon over a gentle fire until it begins to thicken, then draw it to the side, and beat it until the eggs set without being at all hard. Put the preparation on a hot dish, and garnish with sippets. Time, altogether, ten or fifteen minutes.
A soft-scrambled egg dish built around a single black truffle, from the era when truffles were sold whole and fresh rather than shaved from a jar. The whole point is the low heat: these eggs should be barely set and creamy.
- The hinge: keep the heat lowStir constantly over the gentlest heat and pull the pan off before the eggs look done, since they carry on setting off the heat. "Set without being at all hard" means glossy, spoonable curds, not dry flakes.
- SippetsSmall triangles or fingers of bread fried in butter or toasted, arranged round the edge of the dish. Any crisp toast points do the job.
- Truffle quantityNo weight is given; a "large truffle" could be anywhere from an ounce or two upwards. If working from a jar or tube of preserved truffle, a few teaspoons of chopped truffle plus a little of its liquid is a rough substitute; fresh summer truffle is milder and can be used more generously.
- Peeling"Clean and pare" means scrubbing off grit under cold water with a brush, then shaving the black skin. The peelings are worth keeping rather than throwing out.
- ButterTwo ounces of butter for six eggs is roughly 4 tablespoons, which is generous by modern habit but is what produces the texture described. Cut it to 2 tablespoons if you prefer.
- CreamThick cream here means what a modern cook would call heavy or double cream. The recipe adds it with the eggs at the start; a cook who prefers can hold a spoonful back and stir it in off the heat to stop the cooking and loosen the curds.
- YieldSix eggs serves three as a first course, two as a light supper with the sippets. Warm the serving dish, as the recipe directs, or the eggs cool almost immediately.