No. 2860

Hard-Boiled Eggs with Noodles a la Carolli

Œufs Durs aux Nouilles a la Carolli

Blanch some finely shredded noodles in salted water for three minutes, drain and lay them in a saucepan with salt and nutmeg; leave to simmer for a few moments, then range them on a vegetable dish with grated parmesan strewn over. Boil eight eggs hard, the same as Aurora (No. 2857), cut them across in slices, dress them in layers over the noodles, then a layer of minced fresh mushrooms; season each one of these with salt, pepper and nutmeg and mask the surface with bechamel (No. 409) reduced with the mushroom broth, seasoned with prepared red pepper (No. 168) and well buttered. Strew the top with grated parmesan and melted butter and bake in a hot oven.

← No. 2859 Hard-Boiled Eggs a la Benoist Eggs & Omelets No. 2861 Hard-Boiled Eggs a la Gibson →

For the Modern Kitchen

A gratin of sliced hard eggs, noodles and mushrooms under béchamel, written in Ranhofer's shorthand, where half the components live at other numbers in the book. A few gaps need filling before it works as written.

The hinge: mushroom liquorThe b\em>the mushroom broth, which is not accounted for elsewhere in the recipe: either cook the minced mushrooms first and save their liquid, or use a mushroom liquor kept for the purpose, as Ranhofer's kitchen would have. Mushrooms layered in raw will also give off liquid into the sauce.
"A hot oven"Around 425-450F. Most of the components go in cooked, so this is largely a browning step of roughly eight to twelve minutes, though the minced mushrooms go in raw. Watch the parmesan rather than the clock.
The noodlesThree minutes' blanching suits fresh egg noodles cut fine; dried pasta wants its package time less a minute. The instruction to "lay them in a saucepan with salt and nutmeg" names no fat, and a little butter would not be out of place, though the recipe does not say so.
Boiling the eggsThe method is cross-referenced to Aurora (No. 2857), which is not reproduced here. Twelve minutes at a bare simmer, then straight into cold water, keeps the yolks yellow instead of grey-green and makes them slice cleanly.
Bechamel, No. 409The cross-reference is to Ranhofer's béchamel, which is not reproduced here. A standard modern béchamel, with a knob of butter beaten in at the end as the recipe's "well buttered" asks, will serve.
Prepared red pepper, No. 168A red-pepper seasoning kept ready at another number in the book; its make-up is not given here. A good pinch of cayenne stirred into the finished sauce reads much the same on the plate.
NutmegThe recipe calls for it twice: in the noodles and in the seasoning of the layers. Grate it fresh and keep each addition small, or the dish tips over into sweetness.
YieldEight eggs and a dish of noodles serves four to six as a lunch or supper course. Assemble in a shallow gratin dish so the layers stay distinct.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and its egg chapter runs to hundreds of numbered variations, many of them named for patrons, performers and public figures of the day. The construction here is a straightforward gratin, and hard-boiled eggs were exactly the sort of cheap, always-available material a brigade needed dozens of dressings for.