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Eggs and Omelettes: Parmesan-with
Œufs à la Béchamel are hard-boiled, cut in halves, and served in Béchamel sauce. à la Norfolk-hard-boiled, cut in halves, breadcrumbed and fried; served with Piquante sauce. au velouté-hard-boiled, cut in slices and served in white sauce. à la Tripe-slices of eggs with slices of onions and Béchamel sauce. au gratin-slices in layers with white sauce, grated Parmesan, etc.; sprinkled with breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan, and baked. à l'aurore-shred hard-boiled whites of eggs in Aurora sauce, in layers with grated Parmesan and the yolks of the eggs powdered. à la St. James--boiled hard in moulds, the yolks mixed with chopped truffles and put back into the whites; served in Mayonnaise sauce with chopped truffles. farcis, or en canapés-hard-boiled and cut in halves, the yolks mixed with chopped parsley, butter, etc., and put back into the whites; à la crème, they are served with Béchamel sauce. farcis au Parmesan have a cheese stuffing, and are served with cheese sauce. à la Normande have a stuffing with pounded shrimps, etc., and are garnished with small salad. à la Poonah have an anchovy and shrimp stuffing, and are served with rice, and curry sauce. 4 Œufs en aspic-slices of hard-boiled eggs set in a mould of aspic.
Beignets aux œufs are slices of hard-boiled eggs, dipped in batter and fried.
Crépinettes d'œufs à la Soubise are slices of hardboiled eggs, coated with Soubise sauce, wrapped in pork caul, breadcrumbed and fried.
Plovers' or Lapwings' eggs are set in a mould of aspic, or served with a border of aspic round them, as Œufs de pluviers, or vanneaux, en aspic, or à l'aspic. À la Charmante, they are set in little moulds of aspic garnished with strips of beetroot, gherkin and white of egg, and are served with a mayonnaise of shred cucumber and celery.
OMELETTES.
Every dish on this page begins with a hard-boiled egg. What follows is a catalogue of what sauce, stuffing and setting can do to the cheapest thing in the larder.
- Stuffed eggs, served hotŒufs farcis are halved eggs with the yolks worked up with parsley and butter and put back. That is a devilled egg, but the book serves it hot with Béchamel or a cheese sauce over it. The hot version is better than the cold one and almost nobody makes it.
- Plovers’ and lapwings’ eggsThese are wild birds’ eggs, and they were a seasonal luxury taken from nests. The birds are now protected across their range and the eggs cannot be bought or taken. Quail eggs are what a kitchen uses when it wants the same small pale egg set in aspic.
- Pork caulCrépinettes d’œufs wraps sauced egg slices in caul before crumbing and frying. Caul is the lacy fat membrane from around the stomach; a butcher will order it, it needs soaking in warm water to unfold, and it melts away in the pan while holding the parcel together.
- Aurore and Soubise are instructionsAurore is a white sauce tinted and flavoured with tomato; Soubise is built on a purée of onion. Once you know the two words, half the dishes on this page explain themselves and you do not need the entry at all.
- À la PoonahAn anchovy and shrimp stuffing, rice, and curry sauce, filed under a French naming system and named for a city in India. The dish is a good one. The name is a souvenir.
- Aspic is the technique to learn hereŒufs en aspic and the plovers’ eggs set in little moulds depend on a clear, well-seasoned jelly that sets firm and tastes of something. Modern aspic is usually under-seasoned because cold food needs more salt and more acid than warm food to register at all.
Nothing on this page is breakfast. The hard-boiled egg here is a dinner or luncheon dish, lifted entirely by sauce and labour, and that is the economy the book is working in: material was expensive and hands were not, so the way to make something of an egg was to spend an hour on it. The plovers’ eggs point the other way and show what else could buy prestige at a table. They cost almost nothing to produce and could not be had at all for most of the year, so a dish of them announced the season and the supplier rather than the money.