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Eggs à la Parisienne
Butter small timbale moulds, sprinkle with finely chopped truffles, parsley, and cooked beets. Break eggs, and slip PLANKED EGGS. - Page 100.
PLAIN OMELET. - Page 105.
UTENSILS AND MATERIALS FOR THE STARTING OF BROWN SOUP STOCK. - Page 113. one into each mould, sprinkle with salt and pepper, set in pan of hot water, and cook until egg is firm. Remove from moulds on octagon slices of toast, and pour around Tomato Sauce II (see p. 270).
A baked-egg dish built on the water-bath method: the mould lines the egg with colour and aromatics, and gentle heat keeps the white tender. Everything depends on the water bath staying below a simmer.
- Timbale mouldsSmall straight-sided metal moulds of roughly 4-6 tablespoons capacity. Ramekins, dariole moulds, or a deep muffin tin all work; butter generously or the egg will not turn out cleanly.
- The water bathThe recipe says only to set the moulds in a pan of hot water; it does not specify an oven. In practice, water partway up the sides is enough, and the pan can either go into a moderate oven or be held on the stovetop at a bare tremble. Water that boils will make the whites tough and blistered.
- "Until egg is firm"The recipe gives no time. Roughly 12-15 minutes will give a set white and a still-soft yolk, and rather longer a fully set one; the egg continues to cook for a minute after it leaves the water.
- TrufflesFresh black truffle is the intent, but a small quantity of finely chopped preserved truffle or truffle peelings gives the same speckled lining. Sauteed finely chopped mushroom is the honest substitute if truffle is out of reach.
- BeetsCooked beet, chopped fine, is here for colour against the white. Pat it dry first so its juice does not bleed and stain the whole egg pink.
- Turning outRun a thin knife around the rim and invert onto the toast at once. Left to sit, the egg sticks and the yolk sets through.
- The sauceTomato Sauce II is a separate recipe at the page cited (p. 270) and should be checked there; it appears to be a thickened tomato sauce rather than a plain reduction. Any smooth, lightly thickened tomato sauce serves; pour it around the toast rather than over the egg so the decorated top stays visible.
- YieldOne mould per person for a first course, two for a lunch dish.
This is one of the more French dishes in the egg chapter: a la parisienne was a loose menu label attached to garnishes thought smart and metropolitan, truffle among them. The technique is the moulded egg cooked in a water bath so the white sets without toughening, then unmoulded like a small savoury pudding. The octagon of toast reflects the period's cooking-school precision, where bread was cut to a named shape. Beet supplies colour against the white, and the whole dish reflects the era's conviction that a properly served egg should look composed on the plate.