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Egg Timbales (Eggs cups milk teaspoon salt)
3 eggs 2 cups milk 1/2 teaspoon salt Beat the eggs, add the milk and salt, and beat together. Put into oiled timbale molds or custard cups. Set in a pan of hot water, and bake in a moderate oven till just set. Turn out of the molds, and serve surrounded with peas, or with bread sauce or tomato sauce or rice tomato sauce, that is, tomato sauce in which a little rice has been cooked before thickening it. Or serve the timbales on cream-gravy toast.
A smaller proportion of milk may be used in making the timbales. One-fourth cup milk to each egg is sometimes used.
Plain, or French, Omelet 4 eggs 4 tablespoons hot water 1/3 teaspoon salt Break the eggs into a bowl, and beat enough to thoroughly blend the yolks and whites, but not enough to make them light. Beat in the hot water and salt. Turn into a hot oiled omelet pan. As the part of the egg next the pan sets, lift it by running a spatula or thin-bladed knife under the edges, and allow the liquid portion to run underneath. As soon as all is set, roll the omelet up, beginning next the handle of the pan, by tilting the pan and running the spatula under the omelet. Allow it to stand a moment over the stove to give a delicate brown to the under side, then turn onto a hot platter, with the brown side up. Garnish with parsley, and serve at once.
Many variations of this omelet may be made by adding different kinds of garnish to the eggs, or by spreading the garnish over the top of the omelet before it is rolled, or by serving it around the omelet. I might suggest the following:
A savoury baked custard, unmolded and sauced. The whole method rests on gentle heat: the water bath and a restrained oven are what keep the eggs silky rather than curdled.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven is generally taken to mean somewhere in the region of 325-350F. Custards set from the outside in, so the lower end of that range gives you a more even texture with less risk of weeping.
- TimingThe original gives none. In 4-6 oz custard cups in a water bath, expect 25-35 minutes. Pull them when the centre still wobbles slightly and a knife inserted off-centre comes out clean; carryover heat finishes the job.
- The water bathHot, not boiling, water reaching halfway up the molds. If the water simmers, the custard around the edge of each cup will pinhole and turn watery. A folded towel in the bottom of the pan keeps the cups from rattling and moderates the heat.
- UnmoldingOil the molds thoroughly and let the timbales rest 5 minutes out of the water before turning out. Run a thin knife around the edge first. The firmer proportion the recipe mentions, 1/4 cup milk per egg, unmolds much more reliably than the 2 cups to 3 eggs given at the top.
- Strain the custardNot in the original, but worth doing: pouring the beaten egg and milk through a fine sieve removes the ropy bits of white that otherwise show as streaks in the finished timbale.
- Yield and seasoningThree eggs and 2 cups milk fills four to six custard cups, enough for four as a light main course. Half a teaspoon of salt for that volume is modest; a little white pepper and a scrape of nutmeg are traditional additions.
- Cream-gravy toastHere the phrase most likely means toast spread with a plain milk or cream sauce, the period's white sauce, rather than a meat gravy, though elsewhere in the period 'cream gravy' could mean a milk gravy made from drippings. Any of the suggested sauces should be thin enough to pool around the timbale rather than coat it.