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Eggs in Cases
Make some paper cases about three inches square, butter them well inside and half fill them with sifted breadcrumbs seasoned with chopped parsley, a small quantity of cayenne and salt; stick small pieces of butter over the breadcrumbs, break an egg into each and add breadcrumbs seasoned as before until the cases are full. Put them into an oven or on a gridiron over a clear fire for three minutes, and serve very hot.
A baked egg dish whose only real problem is the timing: three minutes will not set an egg buried in cold crumbs. Everything else translates directly to parchment or ramekins.
- The casesSquares of parchment folded and pleated into open boxes about three inches across work as written, buttered inside. Individual ramekins, small gratin dishes or a muffin tin lined with parchment squares are simpler and hold their shape better under a wet egg.
- TimingThree minutes is the hinge and it is wrong for most kitchens. An egg sandwiched between two layers of crumbs needs roughly 10 to 14 minutes at 375F for a set white and a soft yolk; go by appearance, not the clock, since the crumb layer hides the white.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. Use 375F to 400F. Much hotter and the exposed crumbs and paper edges scorch before the white coagulates.
- "Sifted breadcrumbs"Dry crumbs put through a sieve, meaning fine and even, not fresh soft crumbs. Panko is too coarse and will not pack around the egg; plain fine dry breadcrumbs are the match.
- The gridironThe alternative given is a grid over live coals, which cooks from below only. A covered grill over indirect heat is the nearest equivalent, but the oven is more predictable and the paper is safer away from open flame.
- ButterThe small pieces dotted over the lower crumb layer are what keeps the base from drying into a dry pad. Do not skip them, and butter the paper generously or the case tears when you lift it.
- Seasoning"A small quantity of cayenne" seasons the batch of crumbs, not each case. The recipe seasons the crumbs rather than the egg directly.
- YieldOne case per egg; two per person for a first course or breakfast. They collapse and weep as they cool, so bake them to order, as the closing line insists.
Baking eggs in buttered paper cases was standard hotel and club cookery on both sides of the Atlantic in the late nineteenth century, a cousin of oeufs en cocotte and of the caisse dishes that filled the entree pages of French kitchen manuals. The paper case solved a practical problem in a large kitchen: it needed no washing, it could be prepared in rows ahead of service, and it went to the table as its own serving vessel, which is why so many dishes of the period carry "in cases" in the name. Eggs handled this way were breakfast and supper staples rather than showpieces.