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Eggs a la Ribeaucourt
Butter some little paper cases, and let them dry in the oven. Put into each one a pat of butter and let it melt lightly. Break an egg into each case, taking care not to break the yolk, and put a bit of butter on each yolk. Place in a quick oven till the whites are half set. At the moment of serving take them out, and have ready some minced tongue or ham, to sprinkle on them, and decorate with a big bit of truffle.
To Use Up Remains of Meat Cut in slices the remains of any cold meat, such as pork, beef, veal, ham, or mutton. Melt in a pan a bit of salt butter the size of a walnut, and put in it an onion cut into fine slices; let it get brown in the hot butter. In another pan put a larger piece of butter rolled in a soup-spoonful of flour; add to it the onion and butter, and add enough water to prevent the sauce from getting very thick. Add, if you wish it, a teaspoonful of meat-extract and a pinch of salt. Have ready some mashed potatoes, but let them be very light. Place the slices of meat in a fireproof dish, pour the sauce on them, then the mashed potatoes, and put the dish in the oven, all well heated through. This is called in Belgium "un philosophe."
Two recipes run together on this page: a baked-egg dish in paper cases, and a Belgian leftovers gratin called un philosophe. Both are quick, and both depend on judging heat rather than a clock.
- Paper casesThese are the stiff paper caisses once sold for individual baked dishes; butter them and dry them in a low oven so they stiffen and do not soak through. Buttered ramekins or small ovenproof dishes do the same job with less anxiety.
- A quick ovenSomewhere in the region of 400-450F; the term was never precise. The egg goes in over already-melted butter, so the base sets almost at once.
- "Till the whites are half set"A matter of a few minutes only for a single egg in a small dish; watch it rather than time it. The eggs carry on cooking after they leave the oven, which is why the recipe stops short of firm whites; pull them while the surface still wobbles. Anyone cooking for the very young, the elderly or the pregnant should take the yolk and white to a firm set instead.
- Tongue and truffleCold cooked tongue is a specialist purchase now; ham, prosciutto or bresaola minced fine gives the same salty contrast. The "big bit of truffle" is a garnish of the period rather than a flavour requirement, and a few drops of truffle oil or a sauteed mushroom cap is an honest substitute.
- Butter the size of a walnutRoughly 1 tablespoon, about 15 g. The "larger piece" rolled in a soup-spoonful of flour is cooked out in the pan as a roux, so make it about 2 tablespoons of butter worked into 1 tablespoon of flour.
- Meat-extractLiebig's or Bovril, both widely sold at the time. A teaspoon of concentrated beef stock paste or a small crumbled bouillon cube does the same thing; salt at the end, since these are already salty.
- Sauce consistencyAdd water until the sauce coats but still pours -- it will tighten in the oven and it needs to soak into the meat rather than sit as gravy. Roughly a cup of water to that quantity of beurre manie.
- Assembly and bakingEverything goes in already hot, so the oven is only browning and heating through: 15 to 20 minutes at 400F, or a few minutes under the grill for colour on the potato. Cold ingredients will need considerably longer.
- YieldOne egg case per person as a first course. The philosophe serves three or four from about a pound of cold meat.
The Belgian Cook Book was compiled by Mrs. Brian Luck and published in 1915, gathering recipes from Belgian refugees who had fled to England after the German invasion; its charm is that the recipes came from displaced households rather than from professional kitchens. That may account for the pairing here: an elegant little dish of eggs in paper cases sitting directly beside a frankly economical way of using up cold meat. Why the second dish is called un philosophe is not recorded, but the construction -- sliced leftover meat, onion gravy, a lid of mashed potato -- puts it in the same family as English shepherd's pie and French hachis Parmentier, all of them born of the same need to make Monday's dinner out of Sunday's roast.