Shirred Eggs
Eggs may be shirred in one large baking dish or pan, but are better and look more tempting in individual ramekins or custard cups. Place a small piece of butter in the bottom of each; break the egg; drop it in without breaking the yolk; season with pepper and salt and put another small piece of butter on the top. Bake in a hot oven until the white is set, and serve immediately.
A straightforward baked egg, and the whole thing turns on not overcooking it. The original assumes a coal range hot enough to set the white in a few minutes while the yolk stays soft.
- "A hot oven"Read this as roughly 400-425F, the usual modern equivalent for the period term. Watch it closely: at this heat the margin between a set white and a hard yolk is only a minute or two.
- What "shirred" meansThe word is often linked to a shallow, straight-sided baking dish, though the origin is not settled. Practically it means baked in butter in a small dish rather than fried or poached; the closely related French dish baked in a ramekin set in a water bath is oeufs en cocotte.
- TimingThe book gives none. Figure 8-12 minutes for a single egg in a ramekin at 425F. Pull them when the white is just opaque and the yolk still trembles ed carryover heat in the hot dish continues to cook them for a minute after they leave the oven.
- Ramekins and custard cupsAny 4-6 oz ovenproof dish works. Warm the dish with the butter in it for a minute before adding the egg so the white begins setting from below and does not spread thin.
- A water bath helpsSetting the ramekins in a pan with an inch of hot water gives more even, gentler heat and a more reliably custardy white. It is not in the original but it forgives an oven that runs hot.
- Butter quantity"A small piece" is about a teaspoon below and half that above. The top butter is there to keep the yolk from drying and skinning over.
- Doneness and eggsThe yolk here stays runny. If you are serving someone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurized shell eggs or bake until the yolk is firm.
- YieldOne or two eggs per person. Serve in the ramekin, on a plate with a napkin under it, since the dish comes out very hot.
Shirred eggs belong to the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century breakfast and luncheon table, when a good cook was expected to have a dozen ways with an egg and individual service was a mark of care. American cookbooks of the period cheerfully substitute custard cups for whatever specialized dish might be called for. Mrs. Fryer's preference for individual ramekins over one large pan — they cooked better and were "more tempting" — is of a piece with that portioned, plated style of serving. The technique is simpler than its French cousin oeufs en cocotte, which adds cream and a water bath; here the butter does all the work.