No. 2859

Hard-Boiled Eggs a la Benoist

Œufs Durs a la Benoist

Cook six eggs, the same as for Aurora (No. 2857); shell and cut them lengthways in two; remove the yolks and rub these through a sieve. Prepare a well-reduced bechamel (No. 409) thickened with raw egg-yolks; when cold mix in the six cooked egg-yolks, as much mushrooms, and half as many truffles as mushrooms, all to be chopped up separately, and then beat in three very stiffly beaten egg-whites. Cover the bottom of a dish with a layer of veal godiveau (No. 85) with chives, having it a quarter of an inch thick; replace the egg-yolks by a little montglas and fasten the two halves together; lay these reshaped eggs over the godiveau and cover the whole with the beaten egg preparation; pour over butter, push in a moderate oven to heat the eggs well and color them nicely.

← No. 2858 Hard-Boiled Eggs a la Bennett Eggs & Omelets No. 2860 Hard-Boiled Eggs with Noodles a la Carolli →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade, and half this recipe lives in cross-references. Here is what the numbers stand for and what actually matters at the stove.

The hinge: the coating is a souffléThe bechamel-and-egg-white mixture is what makes or breaks the dish. Fold the stiff whites in with a spatula at the last moment, mound it over the eggs, and get it into the oven immediately; if it sits, it deflates and bakes into a dense cap.
"A moderate oven"Conventionally read today as around 350F, though Ranhofer gives no figure. The eggs are already cooked, so the oven is only heating them through and setting and browning the coating; start checking after about 15 minutes. If the top is not colouring, a brief pass under the broiler will finish it, since Ranhofer asks only that the eggs be heated well and coloured nicely.
"Cook the same as for Aurora"Plain hard-boiled eggs. Ten to twelve minutes in gently boiling water, then straight into cold water so the shells come away cleanly and the yolks stay yellow rather than greening.
Godiveau (No. 85)A veal forcemeat, classically lean veal pounded with beef suet, egg and iced water until smooth. A modern food processor does the work: about 8 oz veal, 4 oz suet or cold butter, one egg, salt, and ice water added a spoonful at a time. Spread a quarter-inch layer in the dish; it cooks under the eggs and gives the dish its base.
MontglasA salpicon — small even dice — of pickled tongue, truffle, mushroom and foie gras bound with a reduced madeira sauce. It goes into the hollow left by the yolks. A mixture of finely diced ham or tongue, sautéed mushrooms and a spoonful of madeira-reduced demi-glace stands in acceptably.
Bechamel "well-reduced"Thicker than a sauce; it has to carry sieved yolks, chopped mushrooms and truffle without slackening. Ranhofer thickens it with the raw yolks first, then lets it go cold before the six cooked yolks are mixed in.
TrufflesFresh black truffle at half the volume of the mushrooms is expensive to the point of absurdity for a supper dish. Preserved truffle peelings, or a few drops of truffle-infused oil stirred into the mushrooms, give the register Ranhofer wanted without the outlay.
YieldSix eggs, halved, filled with montglas and fastened back together into six reshaped eggs: a first course for four to six, or a light lunch for three with bread and a salad.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is the book he made of that career: some 3,500 numbered recipes, densely cross-linked, written for cooks who already knew what a godiveau was. The run of hard-boiled egg dishes around No. 2859 shows the method of the house — take a cheap, universally available ingredient and dress it in forcemeat, truffle and salpicon until it can be sold to Wall Street. "Benoist" is one of dozens of surnames Ranhofer attaches to variations without explanation; some honour patrons, some kitchen colleagues, and for most the connection is now untraceable. The technique underneath is older than the name: stuffed hard-boiled eggs masked with sauce and gratinated appear in French cookery well before the nineteenth century, and the soufflé coating here is a late refinement of that idea rather than an invention.