Shirred Eggs
6 eggs 3 tablespoons cream 1 tablespoon butter Salt and pepper Butter a pie pan or shallow baking sheet. Melt the butter, add the eggs, one at a time, taking care not to break the yolks; pour over this cream, dust with salt and pepper and bake in a moderate oven for ten minutes or until the white is set. Muffin rings may be buttered and placed on a buttered pan or baking sheet and the eggs dropped into the rings and baked as directed.
A plain baked-egg dish that depends almost entirely on catching the whites at the right moment. The instructions are sound; only the oven and the equipment need translating.
- "A moderate oven"350F. At the period this book was printed, ranges were judged by hand and by how quickly flour browned, so the phrase covers roughly 325-375F. Anything hotter will set the yolks before the whites lose their gloss.
- The hinge: pull them earlyTen minutes is a starting point, not a rule. Take the pan out when the whites are just opaque and still tremble slightly at the center; carryover heat in a hot metal or ceramic pan finishes them. Egg white toughens and weeps within a minute or two of overcooking.
- "Shirred" means baked in a dishThe term is often traced to the shirrer, a shallow individual baking dish, though the derivation is not certain. A pie pan, a gratin dish, or six ramekins all work. A rimmed sheet pan is easier than a flat "baking sheet" as written, since the cream will run.
- Muffin ringsThese were bottomless metal hoops set on a griddle or sheet for baking English-style muffins. Straight-sided egg rings, tuna-can rings with both ends removed, or a well-buttered muffin tin give the same neat round; expect a tin to take somewhat longer than the stated ten minutes because of the deeper walls.
- CreamSomething rich is intended; heavy cream is the safe modern reading. Half and half or whole milk works but thins out and can curdle at the edges of the pan. Three tablespoons for six eggs is deliberately restrained -- a gloss of richness, not a custard.
- Order of operationsMelt the butter in the pan in the oven, then crack each egg into a cup and slide it in, rather than cracking directly over the pan. Broken yolks cannot be rescued once the cream is poured.
- YieldSix eggs serves three as a main course with toast, or six as part of a larger breakfast.
- Soft yolksBaked this way the yolk stays runny. That is the point of the dish, but anyone cooking for a pregnant woman, a small child, or someone immunocompromised should use pasteurized shell eggs or bake until the yolk is firm.
Shirred eggs belong to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American breakfast table, when eggs were baked in a shallow dish. The name is generally traced to the shirrer, a small round earthenware or metal dish sold specifically for the purpose; French cookery calls the same treatment oeufs sur le plat. The muffin-ring variation is a small window into a kitchen where that equipment was assumed to be on hand.