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Salad Eggs
Remove the shells from four cold, hard boiled eggs and cut a large piece from the top of each; take out the yolks and mix them to form a paste with butter, cream, mustard, red pepper, salt and anchovy paste; put this mixture back into the hollows and lay the eggs on a dish of lettuce or cress. Garnish with radishes and small onions.
A stuffed-egg recipe of the plainest kind, with no quantities given at all — the seasoning is meant to be judged by taste. A few of its terms have shifted since 1890.
- Red pepperIn American cookbooks of this period "red pepper" means cayenne, not paprika or chilli flakes. A pinch is enough for four yolks; it should warm the filling, not colour it.
- MustardDry mustard powder is most likely what is meant here, added to the yolks with the other seasonings. Prepared mustard will work but thins the paste, so compensate with less cream.
- Anchovy pasteStill sold in tubes and essentially unchanged. It is salty enough that you should mix and taste before adding any salt at all.
- ProportionsFor four yolks, start with about 2 tablespoons softened butter, 1 tablespoon cream, 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard and 1 teaspoon anchovy paste. The paste should hold its shape when spooned back in.
- Cutting the topTaking "a large piece from the top" leaves a cup rather than the halved eggs familiar today. Slice a thin sliver from the base as well so each egg stands upright on the greens.
- Hard boilingTwelve minutes on a gentle simmer, then straight into cold water, avoids the grey-green ring at the yolk that makes the filling look muddy. Peel while still slightly warm.
- Yield and servingFour eggs serve two as a light lunch or four as part of a salad course. Assemble no more than a couple of hours ahead and keep refrigerated; the butter-based filling firms up well but the cut whites dry out.
- CressThe "cress" of the original is garden cress or watercress, both peppery. Either stands up to the anchovy far better than a soft lettuce.
Stuffed eggs of this sort belong to a broad family with a long history, but the version here is distinctly late-Victorian: the yolks are enriched with butter and cream rather than mayonnaise, and sharpened with anchovy, a flavouring the English and American table used freely in savouries, sandwich pastes and cocktail bites. Potted anchovy paste was a staple of the well-stocked pantry by the 1880s, alongside bottled essence and the anchovy-based sauces sold under brand names. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns and The Delineator, issued its cook book as part of a broader library of domestic manuals aimed at middle-class households; recipes like this one — no quantities, cold, quickly assembled, good-looking on a dish — suit a supper table or a luncheon salad course where appearance mattered as much as substance.