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Eggs in Ramekins
Prepare the same as Halibut au Gratin.
In the bottom of each ramekin put a small piece of butter and a few fine bread crumbs; break an egg into each; season and bake until the egg is set.
A skeleton recipe of the kind common in loose-leaf books, where one entry borrows its method from another on a neighbouring page. The details that matter are the dish size, the heat, and knowing when to stop.
- The missing cross-reference"Prepare the same as Halibut au Gratin" points to a method given elsewhere in the book; since the butter-and-crumb lining is spelled out here, what exactly is being borrowed is unclear. In practice: butter the dish generously, dust with fine dry crumbs, and finish the baked egg with a few more crumbs and a little butter on top if you want the gratin surface.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is given. A moderate oven, around 350F, is a sensible modern reading. Higher than that and the white toughens at the edges before the centre sets.
- Ramekin sizeA single-egg ramekin is roughly 4 oz, about 3 inches across. In anything wider the egg spreads thin and overcooks; in anything deeper the white will not set evenly.
- "Until the egg is set" is the hingeEight to ten minutes at 350F gives a firm white and a soft yolk; twelve to fourteen sets the yolk through. The residual heat of the hot dish keeps cooking after it leaves the oven, so pull them a shade under.
- A water bath helpsStanding the ramekins in a shallow pan of hot water moderates the heat from below and is one way to guard against a leathery base.
- Seasoning"Season" here means salt and pepper. Salt the white rather than the yolk, or the yolk surface can develop pale speckles.
- YieldOne ramekin per egg, one or two per person as a first course or light supper dish. Serve in the dish, on a plate, with toast.
Eggs baked in small individual dishes were called shirred eggs in nineteenth-century American books, and the ramekin itself was a fashionable import: the word is generally traced to a Dutch or Low German rammeken, a cheese preparation, which passed into French as ramequin and in English came in time to mean the little fireproof dish rather than the food in it. The butter-and-crumb lining is straight gratin practice, giving a browned edge and keeping the egg from bonding to the porcelain.