No. 2508

Garnishing of Hard-Boiled Eggs, Basket-Shaped

Garniture d'Oeufs Durs en Forme de Corbeille

Cut off straight the ends of the hard-boiled egg and across through the center; take out the yolk from the upper parts, and fill them to a pointed shape with a salpicon of vegetables cut in small squares, and combined with a little mayonnaise (No. 606), or simply fill them with jelly.

← No. 2507 Garnishing of Eggs, Barrel-Shaped Garnishings for Cold Dishes No. 2509 Garnishing of Hard Eggs in Chaudfroid →

For the Modern Kitchen

A garnish rather than a dish, from the cold-buffet section of Ranhofer's The Epicurean. The whole effect depends on the egg cups holding their shape, so cook and cut with that in mind.

The hinge: firm, centered yolksEggs boiled hard and cooled completely cut cleanly; warm or soft-centered eggs tear at the edge and the cup collapses. Stirring or rolling the eggs early in cooking is often recommended as a way to keep the yolk centered, giving an even wall of white, though the recipe says nothing of it.
Reading the cutsThree cuts in all: a thin slice off each end so the egg stands upright, then one across the middle. Ranhofer fills only the upper parts here; the recipe does not say what becomes of the lower halves.
SalpiconA salpicon is simply a mixture cut into small, uniform dice; the recipe specifies only vegetables cut in small squares, without naming them or giving a size. Uniformity is the point; ragged dice will not mound to a peak.
No. 606The cross-reference is Ranhofer's own mayonnaise, an oil-and-yolk emulsion made by hand. Any thick mayonnaise works; bind sparingly, since a loose filling slumps out of the cup within minutes.
"Or simply fill them with jelly"Jelly means savory aspic, a clarified meat or poultry stock set with gelatin, not fruit jelly. Fill the cups with the aspic at the syrupy stage just before it sets, and chill until firm.
Where the basket shape comes fromThe name appears to refer to the finished silhouette, a cup heaped to a point; the recipe itself mentions no handle or other basket detail.
Yield and handlingSince only the upper parts are filled, an egg yields one basket. Assemble not far ahead and keep refrigerated, as filled hard-boiled eggs left at room temperature sweat and soften quickly.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its long chapters of garnishings show how much of grand-restaurant cooking was assembly and decoration rather than cooking proper. Cold service in that era meant elaborate platters of galantines, chaudfroids and molded aspics, and the plain hard-boiled egg was the cheapest possible unit of sculpture: this section alone runs through barrel, basket, and chaudfroid treatments in sequence, each a different way of turning the same egg into architecture. The vocabulary is French kitchen shorthand of the period, and the cross-references to numbered recipes such as the mayonnaise at No. 606 reflect how the book was meant to be used, as a working professional system rather than a set of standalone dishes. The style faded with the buffet tradition that supported it, though the diced-vegetable-and-mayonnaise filling survives in the salade russe still sold in European delicatessens.