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Chaud-froid of Eggs
Cut six "hard-boiled" eggs in halves lengthwise and remove yolks. Mix one-third cup cold cooked chicken finely chopped, two tablespoons cold cooked harm finely chopped, two tablespoons chopped raw mushroom caps, one-half tablespoon chopped truffles, and yolks of four of the eggs rubbed through a sieve. Moisten with Spanish Sauce and refill whites with mixture. Mask eggs with Spanish Sauce, garnish with truffles, cut in fancy shapes, and brush over with aspic. Arrange on serving dish and garnish with cress. Spanish Sauce. Cook one and one-half cups canned tomatoes fifteen minutes with one-fourth onion, sprig of parsley, bit of bay leaf, six cloves, one-third teaspoon salt, one-fourth teaspoon paprika, and a few grains cayenne; then rub through a sieve. Beat yolks three eggs slightly, and add, gradually, three tablespoons olive oil. Combine mixtures and cook over hot water, stirring constantly. Add one tablespoon granulated gelatine soaked in three-fourths tablespoon each tarragon vinegar and cold water. Strain, and cool.
A cold buffet piece from the era when a dish was judged by its glaze. The work is in the sauce, which has to be liquid enough to coat and firm enough to hold, and in keeping everything cold once assembled.
- The hinge: sauce temperatureSpanish Sauce here is a chaud-froid coating, not a pouring sauce. Cool it until it thickens to the consistency of heavy cream and only just flows; too warm and it slides off the eggs, too cool and it sets in the bowl. If it sets, warm it briefly over hot water and start again.
- "Harm"A typesetting slip for ham. Two tablespoons finely chopped cold cooked ham.
- Cooking the yolk baseBeat the yolks with the oil, combine with the strained tomato pur s boiler stirring constantly until it visibly thickens and coats a spoon. Straight heat will scramble it. The book gives no temperature, and a custard thickened over hot water does not necessarily reach one high enough to pasteurise the yolks; use a thermometer if that matters to you.
- GelatineOne tablespoon of granulated gelatine is somewhat more than one modern 1/4 oz (7 g) envelope, nearer 9-10 g. Soften it in the tarragon vinegar and water, then stir it into the hot sauce so it dissolves completely before straining.
- AspicThe brushed-over aspic is a clear savoury jelly, chicken or veal stock set with gelatine, used as a varnish to give gloss and keep the surface from drying. About a cup of well-flavoured clarified stock with a teaspoon of gelatine, cooled to syrupy and applied with a soft brush in one thin coat, will do the job. It can be omitted, though it does help keep the surface from drying.
- TrufflesThe book does not say whether fresh or preserved; truffles reached American kitchens of this period mostly in tins. A small jar of preserved truffle peelings will give the same black against the red, at a fraction of the cost; finely chopped black olive or a rehydrated dried mushroom cap will stand in visually if not in flavour.
- Leftover yolksOnly four of the six yolks go into the filling. The other two are surplus; sieve them over the finished platter or keep them for another use.
- Yield and holdingTwelve halves, enough for six as a first course. Assemble on the serving dish and refrigerate; the sauce sets firm within an hour. Do not leave it standing at room temperature for more than a short time before serving.
Chaud-froid means simply hot-cold: the components are cooked hot, then coated in a sauce enriched with gelatine and served cold, the glaze both decorating the dish and sealing it. The technique is generally traced to eighteenth-century French kitchens, and the usual story attaches it to a marshal's table where a dinner was interrupted and the sauced dish eaten cold the next day; the tale is repeated in most kitchen histories without a document behind it. By Fannie Farmer's time the method had become standard equipment for the American cold buffet and the ladies' luncheon, where food was expected to look composed and to survive an hour on the table. What is distinctive here is the sauce: rather than the classic white chaud-froid built on béchamel or a brown one on espagnole, the Boston Cooking School offers a tomato purée bound with egg yolk and olive oil, closer to a set mayonnaise in behaviour, and cheap enough for a household without a stockpot always going.