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Chafing-dish Dainties (Another chafing-dish over hot)
another chafing-dish, over hot water, the wellbeaten yolks of four eggs, one teaspoonful, each, of tarragon vinegar, cider vinegar and made mustard, one-fourth a teaspoonful of salt and one tablespoonful of butter. Stir the sauce until it is quite thick, then serve the sardines on the bread with the sauce poured over them. Olives are agreeable with this dish.
The page begins mid-sentence: the opening lines, which would have covered heating the sardines and preparing the toast, belong to the previous page. What survives is a complete working method for an egg-yolk sauce built over hot water, poured over sardines on bread.
- The hinge: keep the water below a simmerFour yolks with only a tablespoon of butter and three teaspoons of liquid is a very lean emulsion, and it will scramble if the pan bottom gets much above 180F. Hold the water at a bare tremble, stir constantly, and pull the pan the moment the sauce coats the spoon.
- Chafing dish over hot waterThis is the chafing dish's water-bath insert, used exactly as a double boiler. Any heatproof bowl over a pan of hot water does the same job; the point is that the yolks never touch direct heat.
- Made mustardPeriod shorthand for prepared mustard paste rather than dry mustard powder. A smooth Dijon is the closest modern equivalent; English mustard will be considerably sharper in this quantity.
- Tarragon vinegarStill sold, but easily made by steeping a few bruised tarragon sprigs in white wine vinegar for a week. If you substitute plain vinegar you lose the anise note that distinguishes the sauce from a plain mustard dressing.
- The sardinesThe instructions for these fall on the missing previous page. Oil-packed tins are the likeliest intention; warm them gently in their own oil or under a low broiler for a minute, since they are already cooked and will fall apart if fussed with.
- The breadThe recipe says only 'the bread', the preparation having fallen on the previous page; toast cut to fit the fish suits the dish. Cut it after toasting so the edges stay crisp under the sauce.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; four yolks make enough sauce for roughly four servings.
Sardines on toast under a warm egg sauce belongs to the American vogue for chafing-dish cookery of the 1890s and 1900s, when the spirit-lamp chafing dish was popular equipment for late suppers and for rooms where there was no kitchen worth the name. Tinned sardines suited that world: shelf-stable, already cooked, and requiring nothing but heat and a sauce. The sauce here is close to a thin hollandaise soured with two vinegars and sharpened with mustard, and the recipe's own remark that 'olives are agreeable with this dish' suggests they were offered alongside.