Egg Salad II
Cut four "hard-boiled" eggs in halves crosswise in such a way that tops of halves may be cut in small points. Remove yolks, mash, and add an equal amount of finely chopped cooked chicken. Moisten with Oil Dressing I, shape in balls size of original yolks, and refill whites. Arrange on lettuce leaves, garnish with radishes cut in fancy shapes, and serve with Oil Dressing I.
A stuffed-egg salad from the era when a cold luncheon plate was expected to look carved. Nothing here is difficult, but the cutting and the dressing both repay attention.
- The sawtooth cut"Tops of halves may be cut in small points" means the vandyke cut: push a small paring knife at an angle through to the yolk, then reverse the angle, working around the circumference until the two halves separate with a zigzag edge. Cutting crosswise rather than lengthwise gives you eight standing cups instead of eight boats, so plan to shave a sliver off each base.â
- Oil Dressing IA cross-reference to another recipe in the same book, an oil-based dressing rather than a cooked or boiled one; its exact seasoning is not given here. Any vinaigrette at about three parts oil to one of vinegar will do; keep it sharp, since the yolk-and-chicken filling is rich and bland on its own.
- Cooking the eggs"Hard-boiled" is in quotation marks in the original, most likely because the book prefers eggs cooked below the boil; no method is given on this page. Hold them in water just off the boil for about 15 minutes, then cool them at once in cold water — this is what keeps the yolks yellow rather than greenish-grey and makes the shells behave.
- The chickenEqual parts mashed yolk and finely chopped cooked chicken; the original says only "an equal amount." Poached or roasted breast, chopped fine with a knife rather than blitzed, gives the right texture; a food processor turns it to paste.
- Getting the balls to holdMoisten sparingly. Enough dressing to bind, not enough to slacken — if the mixture will not roll into a ball that holds its shape in the palm, it will slump in the white. Chill the filling for ten minutes before shaping if it is soft.
- Radishes cut in fancy shapesRadish roses: trim the root, cut four or five thin petals from stem to base without detaching them, and drop into ice water for half an hour so the petals open. This is one standard period treatment, and the garnish does the work of the dish's presentation.
- Yield and serviceFour eggs give eight filled halves, enough for four as a first course or a light lunch plate. Assemble no more than an hour ahead, keep refrigerated, and dress the lettuce only at the table or it will wilt under the eggs.
Stuffed eggs are far older than this book — the technique of hollowing a hard-cooked egg, seasoning the yolk and returning it appears in Renaissance Italian and later English cookery — but the version here belongs squarely to the American cooking-school moment around 1900. Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book (first published 1896) numbered its variations, which is often said to explain a title like "Egg Salad II", and cross-referenced its own dressings so the reader was expected to work with the book open at two pages. The insistence on pointed edges, uniform balls "size of original yolks" and radishes cut in fancy shapes reflects the period's belief that a cold plate was judged first by the eye; it may also reflect the practical business of the middle-class household, where a cup of leftover chicken and four eggs had to be turned into something that looked deliberate enough to serve to guests.