No. 2866

Fried Eggs a la Eugene Andre

Œufs Frits Eugene Andre

Cut tomatoes in two through their thickness, press out and fry in oil with shallots, a little garlic and chopped parsley; finish with a little meat glaze (No. 402). Dress in a circle, filling the center with cepes fried in oil, with fine herbs, lemon juice and a little brown sauce (No. 414). Heat some butter in a pan and when very hot slip in the eggs broken beforehand on a plate; season the whites with salt and scald the yolks with boiling butter; when the eggs are fried, slip them over the tomatoes and cepes and serve.

← No. 2865 Hard-Boiled Eggs, Russian Style Eggs & Omelets No. 2867 Fried Eggs a la Montebello →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's shorthand assumes a brigade kitchen with stock reductions and mother sauces already on hand. The dish is three separate preparations assembled at the last second, so read it as a timing problem rather than a cooking one.

CèpesCepes are porcini (Boletus edulis). Fresh are seasonal and expensive; 1 oz dried, soaked 20 minutes in warm water and squeezed dry, stands in for about 8 oz fresh. Cremini will work but will not taste like the dish.
Meat glaze (No. 402)Glace de viande — brown stock reduced to a syrup that sets firm when cold. A teaspoon or two dissolved into the tomatoes is all that is meant. Commercial demi-glace concentrate or a reduced veal stock does the same job.
Brown sauce (No. 414)Ranhofer's brown sauce, an espagnole-type long-simmered brown roux sauce. A few spoonfuls of any decent demi-glace suffices; the mushrooms want moistening, not saucing.
Pressing the tomatoesHalved through the equator and squeezed to expel seeds and juice — this is what keeps the finished plate from going watery under the eggs. Salt the cut faces and let them drain a few minutes before they go into the oil.
Fine herbsFines herbes is classically chervil, tarragon, chives and parsley, chopped together and added at the end so they keep their colour; older kitchen usage of the term varied. Parsley alone is a thin substitute but an acceptable one.
How the eggs are actually friedThis is the French method: enough butter in a small pan to come partway up the whites, hot but not browned, the yolks then spooned over with the fat until filmed. The whites should stay pale and tender, not lacy and crisp. Yolks finish soft.
Salt the whites onlyThe recipe is explicit about salting the whites; the usual explanation offered is that salt landing on a yolk leaves pale speckles on the surface. Season the whites in the pan.
Order of workTomatoes and cèpes first, held warm; eggs last, one or two at a time, and to the plate immediately. Fried eggs will not wait.
YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. Reckoning two eggs and two tomato halves per person, it would serve two to four as a first course or lunch dish.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working catalogue — some twelve hundred pages of cross-referenced numbers, of which this egg dish is No. 2866 among more than a hundred egg preparations. The book's habit of naming dishes after individuals reflects restaurant practice of the period: patrons, colleagues and public figures were honoured with a garnish, and the names outlived any memory of who they belonged to. Eugene Andre is one of the obscurer of them. The composition itself is thoroughly Provençal in its parts — tomato, garlic, shallot, olive oil, cèpes — dressed up for a Fifth Avenue table with glace de viande and espagnole, which is a fair description of what Delmonico's did generally: regional French cooking rendered in the grand style, with a sauce station behind it.