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Invalids' Eggs
Cut out some rounds of bread a good deal larger than a poached egg would be. While these are frying, make a puree of Brussels sprouts. Boil them till tender, squeeze in a cloth. Rub them through a sieve and make into a very thick puree with cream, pepper and salt. Poach a fresh egg for each crouton, and slip it on, very quickly, put some of the green puree round, and serve under a hot cover.
A Sweet for the Children If you have some little breads over, cut each one in four, soak the pieces in milk sweetened and flavored with vanilla, for three hours. When they are well soaked roll them for a moment in grated and dried breadcrumbs, and dip them for a moment in boiling fat, just as you would do croquettes. Sift some white sugar over them and serve very hot.
Two separate dishes share this entry: poached eggs on fried croutons with a sprout puree, and a way of using up stale rolls as a fried sweet. Both are straightforward; the sprout puree is where the work is.
- Squeeze the sprouts hardBrussels sprouts hold a great deal of water, and a puree made from undrained sprouts will slide off the crouton and soak it. Boil until fully tender, wring them out in a clean cloth or press firmly in a sieve, then sieve or blitz with just enough cream to bind. It should mound on a spoon.
- "Little breads"In the second recipe these are presumably small bread rolls, a day or two old; the book does not specify a kind. A firm-crumbed roll, or a slightly stale brioche, will stand up to a three-hour milk soak better than a soft modern dinner roll.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe gives none. For both the croutons and the sweet, modern deep-frying practice would put the fat at around 350-375F. "Dip them for a moment in boiling fat" implies only a brief immersion, long enough to set the crumb coating.
- Poach the eggs lastThe instruction to slip the egg on "very quickly" is the hinge. Have croutons drained and puree hot in the pan before the eggs go into the water, then assemble and cover at once. A poached egg on a fried crouton loses its point within a minute.
- The hot coverA domed plate cover, standard equipment in a period kitchen, kept the dish warm on the walk from kitchen to sickroom. An inverted bowl does the same job, or simply serve at the table.
- On the invalidThe dish is designed to be soft, mild and easy to eat. Because the yolk stays liquid, it is not a dish for someone who is actually immune-compromised, pregnant or very elderly; pasteurized eggs in the shell are the modern answer where that matters.
- YieldNeither recipe gives a quantity. Reckon a pound of sprouts and about a quarter cup of cream for four croutons and four eggs; one leftover roll, quartered, makes a portion of the sweet for one child.
The Belgian Cook-Book was compiled in 1915 by Mrs. Brian Luck from recipes contributed by Belgian refugees who had fled to Britain after the German invasion, and it reads as a record of ordinary home cooking rather than restaurant work. That context explains the shape of this page: a delicate invalid dish followed immediately by a way of rescuing stale rolls, thrift and care sitting side by side. Brussels sprouts take their name from the city and were long associated with the region's market gardens; sieving them into a cream puree seems to reflect a common genteel approach to vegetables served to the sick, on the reasoning that anything fibrous taxed a weak stomach. The fried sweet belongs to the same European family as pain perdu and French toast, dishes whose entire purpose is old bread.