Scalloped Eggs
3 "hard-boiled" eggs 1 pint White Sauce I 3/4 cup chopped cold meat 3/4 cup buttered cracker crumbs Chop eggs finely. Sprinkle bottom of a buttered baking dish with crumbs, cover with one-half the eggs, eggs with sauce, and sauce with meat; repeat. Cover with remaining crumbs. Place in oven on centre grate, and bake until crumbs are brown. Ham is the best meat to use for this dish. Chicken, veal, or fish may be used.
A layered casserole built from leftovers, of the sort that filled out a household's cold meat. The whole thing is already cooked, so the oven is only there to heat it through and brown the top.
- The sauceA pint is 2 cups. Numbered white sauces vary from book to book; the first is often the thinner pouring sauce (about 1 tablespoon each of butter and flour per cup of milk) against 2 tablespoons each for a medium, but this page does not say which, so check the book's own White Sauce I. A looser sauce is what keeps the dish from drying out. Season it properly with salt, pepper and a scrape of nutmeg, since neither the eggs nor the crumbs bring much.
- OvenNo temperature is given because the original cook judged by the fire. Use 375-400F and expect 20 to 25 minutes; the centre grate simply means the middle rack, so the top browns without the bottom scorching.
- DonenessBrowned crumbs are the only signal, and they can colour before the interior is hot. Check that the sauce is bubbling at the edges before taking it out, and run it briefly under the broiler if the top is still pale.
- Cracker crumbsButtered crumbs means crumbs tossed in melted butter, roughly 2 tablespoons of butter to 3/4 cup crumbs. Crackers of the period ranged from plain common crackers to salted soda crackers; saltines or plain water biscuits work, but cut back the salt in the sauce if you use a salted cracker.
- Chopping the eggsThe recipe says to chop finely; if you want the layers to keep some texture, stop short of paste. Cooling the eggs completely before chopping keeps the yolks from crumbling away.
- The meatHam is named as the best meat, presumably for its salt and smoke; if you use chicken, veal or flaked cooked fish, the sauce may need more seasoning to compensate. Chop it about the same size as the egg so the layers hold together when served.
- Dish and yieldA 1-quart baking dish suits these quantities. It serves three or four as a light supper with bread and a salad.