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Eggs à la Juliette
Decorate egg-shaped individual moulds with truffles, and cold boiled tongue cut in fancy shapes, and pistachio nuts blanched and split. Line mould with aspic jelly, drop in a poached egg yolk, cover with aspic jelly, let stand until firm, and turn on a thin oval slice of cold boiled tongue.
A cold garde-manger set piece rather than a breakfast egg: essentially œufs en gelée built in individual moulds. Everything depends on the aspic being strong enough to unmould and on the yolks being poached whole and intact.
- Poach the yolks first, and separatelySeparate the eggs, slide each yolk into barely simmering salted water with a splash of vinegar, and poach until just set through — roughly 3 minutes — then lift into cold water. A yolk that is still liquid inside will bleed into the jelly and, held at room temperature in gelatin, is the one real hazard in the dish. Keep the assembled moulds refrigerated from start to service.
- Aspic jellyThe book means a clarified, well-seasoned meat or chicken stock set with gelatin. For a dish that must be turned out of a mould, use about 1 envelope (2 1/4 tsp) powdered gelatin per cup of cold stock; a soft table jelly will collapse. Clarify with egg white and strain through a cloth or the decoration will not show.
- Egg-shaped individual mouldsThese were small ovoid moulds, usually tinned, holding only a few ounces. Dariole moulds, 4-oz ramekins or the cups of a silicone half-egg mould all work; capacity matters more than shape.
- Layer in stagesSet a thin film of aspic in the chilled mould first, press the truffle, tongue and pistachio decorations into it face down, chill again, then add the yolk and fill. Pouring warm jelly over loose garnish floats it out of position.
- TrufflesThe 1896 pantry meant black truffles preserved in tins, used purely as black decoration. Sliced black olive, dried mushroom or a dark ham gives the same graphic effect at a fraction of the cost; truffle oil contributes nothing here.
- Cold boiled tongueWhole beef tongue is a special order at most butchers. Sliced pickled or smoked tongue from a deli, or good boiled ham, cuts the fancy shapes just as well — a small aspic cutter or the tip of a paring knife.
- Blanched pistachiosCover shelled unsalted pistachios with boiling water for a minute; the skins slip off and the nuts come out bright green. Salted cocktail pistachios will bleed salt into the jelly.
- Chilling and unmouldingAllow at least 3 to 4 hours in the refrigerator, longer if the moulds are deep. Dip the mould in warm water for 2 to 3 seconds, not longer, and turn out onto the tongue slice.
- YieldOne mould per person, as a cold first course or part of a buffet or luncheon plate; count on one egg yolk each.
Cold work in aspic was the professional cook's showpiece at the end of the nineteenth century, and Fannie Farmer's book carries a good deal of it; the Boston Cooking School trained women who might be expected to send out a summer luncheon or a buffet supper as well as a family dinner. Dishes of this kind descend from the French œufs en gelée of the classical repertoire, where a poached egg is suspended in clear jelly over a decoration of truffle, tongue and tarragon; "à la Juliette" is one of the many nineteenth-century garnish names attached to a particular arrangement rather than a documented person, and no origin for it appears to be recorded. The detail that dates the recipe most sharply is not the truffle but the tongue: boiled beef tongue was an ordinary, economical cold meat in 1896, sliced for sandwiches and kept in the larder, ready to be cut into fancy shapes.