No. 2922

Eggs on a Dish with Cepes

Œufs sur le Plat aux Cepes

Peel and chop up two or three cepes heads; melt some butter in a large egg dish, bestrew the bottom with chopped cepes and these with parsley; season and heat for two minutes. Break six eggs into this dish, and cook in the oven, having them glossy. Eggs can also be prepared with canned mushrooms.

← No. 2921 Eggs on a Dish with Bacon Eggs & Omelets No. 2923 Eggs on a Dish with Chopped Ham →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-minute recipe from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen that depends almost entirely on the dish it is cooked in and on knowing when to pull it out.

Cepes are porciniCèpes are Boletus edulis, sold fresh in autumn or dried year-round. Head size varies enormously, so "two or three" is only a rough guide; call it 6 to 8 oz fresh. If using dried, about 1 oz soaked, drained and squeezed dry, then chopped.
Drive off the water firstThe two minutes given assumes mushrooms already fairly dry. Fresh cepes release a great deal of liquid, and any that remains will pool under the eggs and steam them grey. Cook the chopped mushrooms in the butter until the pan is dry and they begin to brown, then add the parsley and eggs.
Canned mushroomsRanhofer's alternative still works, but drain them thoroughly, blot them, and give them longer in the butter than you think — canned mushrooms are waterlogged and bland until browned.
The egg dishA plat à oeufs is a shallow round metal or earthenware dish that goes on the stove and then into the oven, about 8 inches across for six eggs. A cast-iron skillet or a small enamelled gratin dish does the same job. The dish must be hot and buttered before the eggs go in or the whites weld to it.
Oven heatRanhofer gives no temperature; a moderate oven, around 375°F, suits. Hotter and the whites toughen and blister at the edges before the yolks warm through; cooler and the whites stay slack and watery.
"Having them glossy"This is the hinge. The eggs are done when the whites are just set but the yolks still carry a wet, shining film across the top -- in a moderate oven, roughly 4 to 6 minutes, though it depends on the dish and the heat. Once that gloss dulls to matte, the yolks are setting and the dish is past its point.
SeasoningSeason the mushrooms, not the eggs. Salt scattered directly on raw yolks pits and speckles them; salt on the whites draws water out.
YieldSix eggs serves three as a first course or two at breakfast, with bread to work into the buttery mushroom juices at the bottom.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the repertoire of Delmonico's in New York, and its egg chapter is essentially a catalogue of variations on one French formula: oeufs sur le plat, eggs broken into a buttered shallow dish over a garnish and set in the oven, served in the vessel they cooked in. The numbered neighbours here — bacon, chopped ham — show the pattern, with the garnish alone distinguishing one dish from the next. Cepes marked the luxury end of that scale. Boletus mushrooms were gathered rather than cultivated, arriving in a short autumn season, and Ranhofer adds a line noting that canned mushrooms may be used.