No. 2874

Eggs Molded a la Colbert—in Cases (œufs Moules en Caisses a la Colbert

Butter a few china cases, covering the bottom and sides with a chopped raw truffle preparation mingled with chicken cream forcemeat (No. 75). In the hollow center of each break a fresh egg, season the top and butter over with a brush; place the cases on a small raised-edge baking pan having hot water at the bottom, and poach them for six to eight minutes in a slack oven; after removing wipe nicely and cover the tops with a layer of Colbert sauce (No. 451).

← No. 2873 Eggs Molded a la Bedford—in Cocottes and Egg Eggs & Omelets No. 2875 Egg Molded a l'Echiquier—in Cases →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's molded eggs are a first-course garnish dish: a buttered case lined with truffled chicken forcemeat, an egg broken into the hollow, and a spoonful of compound butter sauce over the top. Most of the work is in the two cross-references.

The hingeThe raw chicken forcemeat lining and the egg may not finish at the same moment. Ranhofer breaks the egg straight into the lined case, but if your lining is thick you can set the cases in the water bath for a few minutes until the forcemeat is firm before breaking in the eggs.
"Slack oven"About 275-300F. Anything hotter and the whites toughen and weep before the yolks are set. The pan of hot water is not optional — it is what keeps the custard-like set.
China casesSmall ovenproof porcelain ramekins or cocottes of roughly 3 to 4 fl oz. Butter them heavily; the forcemeat sticks. The dish is served in the case, not turned out.
Forcemeat No. 75Chicken cream forcemeat is raw breast meat pounded to a paste, worked with egg white, sieved, then let down with heavy cream over ice. A food processor does the pounding, but keep everything cold or the cream breaks out of the emulsion.
TruffleThe text calls only for chopped raw truffle worked through the forcemeat; black truffle is the assumption, though preserved truffle was the usual article in an American kitchen of the period. Preserved truffle peelings or a little good truffle paste are the practical substitutes today.
Colbert sauce No. 451A Colbert preparation in this repertoire is generally a compound butter rather than a modern emulsion: butter worked with meat glaze, lemon juice and chopped parsley or tarragon. Spoon it on soft and let it melt over the hot egg rather than cooking it.
Timing and donenessSix to eight minutes is a short window; eggs taken cold from the refrigerator will want longer. Pull them when the white is just set and the yolk still trembles; carryover heat in the china continues the cooking.
YieldOne case per person as a first course. The recipe scales exactly, but do not crowd the water bath — leave space between the cases or the outer ones set well ahead of the inner.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of that restaurant's repertoire, which is why its egg chapter runs to hundreds of numbered variations distinguished only by garnish and vessel: en cocotte, en caisses, a la Bedford, a l'Echiquier. The name Colbert is generally attached to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's finance minister, though as with most of the nineteenth-century French sauce names the connection is honorific rather than documented; in the classical repertoire it denotes butter worked with meat glaze, lemon and herbs, most familiar today on the split fried sole called sole Colbert. The cross-referencing itself tells you how this kind of cooking worked: a cook was expected to have forcemeat and meat glaze already standing in the larder, so a dish like this was fifteen minutes of assembly rather than an afternoon's work.