No. 2929

Poached Eggs a la Wright Sanford

Œufs Poches a la Wright Sanford

Blanch some straight thick vermicelli in boiling water for two minutes; drain and return them to the saucepan, adding fresh mushrooms previously minced, washed, drained, fried in butter, and moistened with a little Madeira wine and half-glaze sauce (No. 413), and reduced; season, then dress the whole in the center of a dish, and garnish around with poached eggs (No. 2931).

← No. 2928 Poached Eggs a la Villeroi Eggs & Omelets No. 2930 Poached Eggs, Matelote →

For the Modern Kitchen

A garnish-and-egg dish in Ranhofer's usual shorthand: he assumes you have demi-glace on the stove and know how to poach an egg. Two clarifications carry most of the weight — the pasta and the sauce.

"Straight thick vermicelli"Ranhofer's qualifier suggests he wanted the heavier, long straight form rather than the fine coiled sort; dried spaghetti is a reasonable modern stand-in. Treat the pasta as the body of the dish, not a garnish.
Two minutes is not the cooking timeThe blanch here is only a first step, since the pasta is returned to the pan and finished in the mushroom sauce. Cook modern dried spaghetti most of the way to al dente and drain it a shade under.
Half-glaze sauce (No. 413)This is demi-glace: brown espagnole sauce reduced with stock until it coats a spoon. A good reduced veal or beef stock, thickened lightly if needed, stands in. You need only a few tablespoons — enough to bind the mushrooms and gloss the pasta.
MushroomsMince cremini or white mushrooms, wash and drain them as directed, then fry in butter until the water has gone and they begin to colour. Deglaze with a splash of dry Madeira, add the half-glaze, and reduce until barely loose.
Poaching the eggsCross-reference No. 2931. Very fresh eggs, water at a bare tremble around 180°F with a spoonful of vinegar, three minutes for a set white and liquid yolk. Trim the ragged edges before plating if you want a neat presentation.
SeasoningThe half-glaze is already salty and the mushrooms concentrate. Season the pasta mixture at the end, after reduction, not before.
Yield and serviceReckon on one or two eggs per person and about 2 oz dry pasta each; four eggs and half a pound of pasta serve four as a first course. It must go to the table at once — the eggs cool fast and the sauce tightens.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and dishes named for individuals run through it by the hundred: patrons, public figures and friends of the house were commemorated by having a garnish attached to their name. Who Wright Sanford was is not established by the book, and in dedications of this kind the connection to the food is usually nil — the title is a compliment, not a description. What the recipe does show is how Delmonico's built variety: a single technique (poached eggs) surrounded by an interchangeable ring of garnishes, each catalogued and cross-referenced by number so a cook could assemble an unfamiliar dish from parts already standing on the stove. The pasta-and-mushroom base here is Italian in material and thoroughly French in method, which describes a good deal of American fine dining in the 1890s.