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Columbus Eggs
618. Cut in half, twelve hard boiled eggs, and cut off a little at each end to make them stand like cups; chop the yolks, and mix with ham, cream, and nutmeg; fill with it the cups, press it smooth, arrange on the dish the two halves together like whole eggs.
A stuffed-egg recipe with no quantities beyond the eggs themselves, so the balance of the filling is left to the cook. The hinge is the trimming: shaving a flat foot at each end is what lets the reassembled eggs stand upright on the dish.
- YieldTwelve eggs make twenty-four halves, which reassemble into twelve standing "whole" eggs. Enough for six to twelve as a first course or cold-table dish.
- Unstated proportionsNo amounts are given for the ham, cream or nutmeg. For twelve yolks, roughly 6 oz of finely chopped cooked ham, 3-4 tablespoons of cream and a few grates of nutmeg give a filling that holds its shape; add the cream a spoonful at a time.
- Boiling the eggsTwelve minutes at a bare simmer, then straight into cold water, gives firm yolks without the grey-green ring. Older eggs peel more cleanly than very fresh ones.
- Cut in half means lengthwiseCut in half means crosswise -- The halves have to be trimmed at both tips and then stood on end, so cut across the egg, not down its length. Each half becomes a cup with a flat base.
- The trimmingsSlicing a little white off each end leaves scraps; chop them in with the yolks rather than discarding them, since the filling has to be generous enough to fill both cups and meet in the middle.
- HamA cooked, mild ham chopped very fine, or minced in a processor with the yolks. Modern wet-cured supermarket ham is wetter and looser than the dry-cured ham of the period, so taste before adding any salt.
- AssemblyMound the filling slightly above the rim of each cup, press the two halves together firmly, and chill for half an hour so the filling sets and the join holds when the eggs are moved.
- ServingServe cold. A bed of cress, aspic, or a little chopped parsley on the dish helps steady the standing eggs, which are otherwise inclined to topple.
The name points to the old anecdote of Columbus and the egg, in which the navigator silences dinner guests who belittle his voyage by challenging them to stand an egg on its end, then flattens the shell against the table and does it himself. The story is traditional rather than documented, first told in print long after Columbus's death, but it was familiar enough in the nineteenth century that a cook could call a trimmed, upright stuffed egg a "Columbus egg" and expect to be understood. The dish itself belongs to the large family of Victorian stuffed eggs, in which the yolks are mashed with something savoury and rich, ham, anchovy, tongue or cheese, and returned to the whites for a cold sideboard or supper table; the extra step of joining the halves so they look whole again is pure table theatre, of a piece with a period that liked its cold dishes moulded, glazed and disguised.