No. 2924

Eggs on a Dish with Tomatoes

Œufs sur le Plat aux Tomates

Scald two small partly ripe tomatoes in order to remove the skins, divide each one in two, cut them up small, salt over and drain in a sieve; saute in butter and range them on the bottom of a small buttered egg dish (Fig. 567); break four eggs into this, salt the whites, scaled the yolks and cook in the oven, glossing the tops.

← No. 2923 Eggs on a Dish with Chopped Ham Eggs & Omelets No. 2925 Poached Eggs a la Boeldieu and Eggs a la Ben →

For the Modern Kitchen

A single-serving oven-baked egg dish from Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen, written in the compressed shorthand of a professional line. The whole thing takes under fifteen minutes once the tomatoes are ready.

The egg dishThe plat à œufs is a shallow, flat-bottomed ovenproof dish of porcelain or metal, usually with two small ears, sized to hold two to four eggs in one layer. A 6-inch cast-iron skillet, a small gratin dish or an individual cazuela does the same job. The point is a wide base and low sides so the whites set before the yolks firm.
Oven heatRanhofer gives none. Eggs sur le plat want a moderate oven, about 350F, for roughly 8 to 12 minutes, until the whites are just opaque and the yolks still liquid. Higher heat toughens the whites at the edges before the centre sets.
"Glossing the tops"To gloss is to brush the surface with melted butter, which gives the finished whites a sheen. A very brief moment under a broiler element, watched closely, gives a similar effect.
"Scald the yolks" is likely a printer's slip"Scald the yolks" is likely a slip -- The instruction as printed makes little sense alongside oven cooking and may be a typesetting or transcription corruption. The practical reading is: salt the whites only, and leave the yolks bare.
Partly ripe tomatoesRanhofer gives no reason. Under-ripe fruit is firmer, so the flesh is likelier to hold its shape in the pan rather than collapse into sauce. A firm ripe plum tomato is the closest modern substitute. Two small tomatoes is roughly 6 oz.
Salting and drainingNot optional. Salted and left in a sieve for ten minutes or so, the cut tomato sheds the water that would otherwise pool under the eggs and make the whites watery. Press gently before it goes into the butter.
YieldThe recipe gives no yield. Four eggs in one small dish will serve one hearty eater, or two with bread.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working system set down in some 3,500 numbered entries, cross-referenced so a cook could chain them together. That is why this recipe reads as it does: no oven temperature, no timing, no yield, because the man reading it already knew. Oeufs sur le plat is a French domestic and restaurant form rather than a grand one, the egg baked and served in the same small dish, and the book carries numerous variations on it, distinguished largely by what is laid underneath the eggs, here tomato, in the entry immediately before it chopped ham.