No. 2931

Poached Eggs with Gravy

Œufs Poches au Jus

The eggs must be very fresh and selected of uniform size. Only a few at a time can be poached. Boil some salted water acidulated with vinegar in a saucepan; quickly crack three or four eggs, one at a time, on the edge of the saucepan; open and drop them over the water exactly in the spot where it bubbles; with a small, deep, long-shaped skimmer gather the egg together, turning it incessantly, so that it assumes a long form, then remove the pan to the side of the fire until the envelope of the yolk be sufficiently hardened not to break. The difficulty consists in giving the egg a sufficient solidity without allowing the yolks to harden, for these should remain perfectly mellow. As soon as each egg is done, lift it up delicately with the skimmer and drop it in a plentiful supply of cold water so that it hardens, then take it up very carefully, pare neatly, and return it at once into cold water. Just when ready to serve, warm the poached eggs, either in their own water that has been strained through a sieve, or on a small baking tin, in a slack oven; dress them in a vegetable dish and baste over with clear gravy (No. 404) and serve. Poached eggs are also served simply on slices of toast, without any sauce whatever.

← No. 2930 Poached Eggs, Matelote Eggs & Omelets No. 2932 Poached Eggs with Puree of Chicken Supreme →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer is describing restaurant service, not breakfast: the eggs are poached in advance, chilled, trimmed, and reheated to order. Everything in the method follows from that.

The hinge: cold water immediatelyDropping each finished egg into plenty of cold water stops the cooking dead and firms the white enough to be trimmed without tearing. Skip it and the yolk keeps setting in its own heat while you pare.
Acidulated waterRanhofer gives no quantity; about a tablespoon of plain white vinegar per quart of water is a serviceable modern amount, enough to tighten the white on contact. Much more and the egg tastes of it. The salt is chiefly for seasoning.
Water temperature"Where it bubbles" points to the spot of active movement in the pan; Ranhofer has the water boiling when the eggs go in, and only then moves the pan to the side of the fire. On a modern hob, cut the heat once the eggs are in so the surface only shivers; held at a rolling boil the white shreds.
TimingRanhofer gives no time. He judges by the egg itself: the envelope of the yolk hardened just enough not to break, the yolk still perfectly mellow rather than liquid. Two to three minutes at a gentle simmer is a modern starting point for a large egg.
"Slack oven"A slack or cool oven is usually reckoned somewhere in the region of 250-300F. It is used here only to take the chill off pre-poached eggs, a matter of a few minutes; the gentler route is a bowl of hot (not boiling) strained poaching water.
"Clear gravy (No. 404)"No. 404 is Ranhofer's clear gravy; its composition is not given on this page, so the details are unverified here. A reduced beef or veal stock, lightly seasoned and unthickened, is the modern equivalent; a flour-thickened gravy is the wrong texture entirely.
"Pare neatly"Once chilled, the ragged skirt of set white cuts away cleanly with a small knife or the edge of a round cutter, leaving the neat oval shape the turning with the skimmer was meant to produce.
Yield and eggsFigure two eggs per person as a course, one if it accompanies something else. Very fresh eggs matter more here than anywhere else — a slack, watery white will not gather into a shape however carefully you turn it. Anyone serving soft yolks to the very young, the elderly, or the immune-compromised should use pasteurized shell eggs.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry reads exactly like a line cook's standing instruction rather than a home recipe. Poaching in batches, shocking in cold water, trimming and holding until service is the classic French mise en place for eggs, and it is why the book gives dozens of numbered variations on the poached egg — once you have a tray of trimmed eggs in cold water, the difference between this dish and No. 2932 is only the sauce. Au jus here means what it meant in nineteenth-century French kitchens: napped with clear meat gravy, not the thickened sauce the phrase later came to suggest on American menus. The closing line, that poached eggs are also served plainly on toast with no sauce at all, is Ranhofer conceding that the whole apparatus is optional.