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Egg Farci
Boil six eggs twenty minutes, cool, shell, cut an even slice from each end of every egg and then cut them in two. Mash the yolks until light and then add one-fourth teaspoon of pepper, one-half teaspoon of salt, one tablespoon of butter, four of milk, and three drops of onion juice; mix thoroughly and then heap high in the hollows of the whites; set the latter on a tin plate or pan in the oven six minutes. Arrange the eggs on a warm dish and pour over them a cream, béchamel, tomato or curry sauce as preferred. See Chapter on Sauces for Fish, Meats, Poultry and Game.
A stuffed-egg dish meant to be served hot under a sauce, not chilled like a picnic deviled egg. The instructions are sound; only the boiling time and a couple of quantities need adjusting.
- Twenty minutes is too longHard-boiled eggs are fully set in 10-12 minutes off the boil, and 20 minutes gives a rubbery white and a greenish, sulfurous ring around the yolk. Cover the eggs with water, bring to a boil, cover and stand off the heat 11 minutes, then chill in cold water so they shell cleanly.
- Cutting the endsTrimming a slice from each end leaves flat bases, so that halves cut crosswise will stand upright and hold a high heap of filling; the recipe does not say which way the eggs are cut, or give a reason for the trimming. The trimmings can be mashed in with the yolks.
- Onion juiceThree drops means the liquid pressed from a cut onion against a grater or through a fine sieve, a direction that appears often in cookbooks of this period. A scant pinch of grated onion or a very small amount of onion powder gives the same background note without wetting the filling.
- Four of milkRead as four tablespoons, following the tablespoon just named. That is a good deal of liquid for six yolks and will give a loose filling; add it a spoonful at a time and stop when the mixture is stiff enough to mound.
- The ovenNo temperature is given. A moderate oven, 350F, for the stated six minutes is enough to warm the filling through; the eggs are already cooked and longer only toughens the whites.
- Sauce firstHave the sauce finished and hot before the eggs go in the oven. Six minutes is not long enough to make a bechamel, and stuffed eggs held waiting will weep and go cold on the plate.
- YieldTwelve halves, serving three or four as a light lunch or supper dish with toast. Choose the sauce to suit the meal: cream or bechamel for a plain course, tomato or curry when it is standing on its own.
Farci is French for "stuffed." Hot stuffed eggs served under a sauce appear as a luncheon and supper dish in cookery books of the period, and belong to the same family as deviled eggs, which were sometimes served warm as well as cold. The instruction to consult the sauce chapter is characteristic of the period's cookery writing, where a repertoire of sauces was assumed knowledge and a plain dish of eggs could be varied several ways by changing what was poured over it. Curry powder was by then a familiar item in Anglo-American household cooking.