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Hard-Boiled Eggs with Madeira Sauce
Cut twelve hard-boiled eggs into halves lengthwise, remove the yolks and place them in a bowl with half an ounce of butter, one teaspoonful of essence of anchovies and a pinch of chopped chives; beat these well, fill the whites with the mixture, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, pour over a few drops of clarified butter and put them on a buttered dish in the oven for three minutes. Serve with half a pint of Madeira sauce poured over.
A stuffed-egg dish from the Waldorf's kitchen, built to be assembled in advance and finished at the last minute. Two things carry it: the anchovy in the filling and the Madeira sauce underneath, neither of which the text explains.
- Essence of anchoviesA commercial bottled extract of salted anchovy, thin and intensely savory, widely sold at the time. Anchovy paste from a tube is the nearest thing; use about half a teaspoon and taste, since the paste is likely more concentrated and saltier than the old essence.
- Madeira sauce is the workIt is not implied here, but Oscar's Madeira sauce means a brown sauce or demi-glace reduced with Madeira, and it needs to be made separately before the eggs go in the oven. Half a pint is one cup in American measure, generous for twelve eggs.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A hot oven, around 400F, for the stated three minutes will heat the eggs through and set the crumbs; longer and the whites turn tough.
- Half an ounce of butterOne tablespoon, for twelve yolks. That is a stiff filling by modern habit, so a little of the sauce or a spoonful of cream loosens it without diluting the anchovy.
- Clarified butterUsed rather than whole butter so the milk solids do not scorch on the crumbs in a hot oven. Melted butter poured off its white sediment does the job.
- Boiling the eggsBring to a boil, cover, take off the heat and let stand about ten minutes, then cool in cold water. Yolks held at a hard boil pick up the gray-green ring and a sulfurous edge that fights the anchovy.
- YieldTwenty-four halves, which serves eight to twelve as a first course or six as a light luncheon dish with the sauce spooned over.
Oscar Tschirky ran the Waldorf's dining rooms rather than its stoves, and his 1896 book reads as a working record of what a large American hotel kitchen of the period sent out. This dish is a plain French oeufs farcis given hotel treatment: the filling gets anchovy essence, a bottled seasoning of the period, and the plate gets a brown Madeira sauce. Fortified wine sauces were common in this cooking.