Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms

Ranhofer writes in shorthand, assuming you have the base recipes at hand; the whole dish is really a technique note plus three garnishes. Everything hinges on the eggs being cooked slowly enough to stay creamy.

• The hinge: low, slow, stirredFrench scrambled eggs of this period are generally cooked in a wide pan over gentle heat, or in a bowl over simmering water, stirred constantly until they thicken to a loose custard. Pull them while still visibly soft, since they set further off the heat, rather than letting them reach a dry curd.
• "The same as with gravy"No. 2940 is the scrambled-egg base finished with meat gravy; the text of that entry is not given here. If you have no jus on hand, a tablespoon of good chicken or veal stock reduced to a syrup, or simply butter and cream, will carry the same richness.
• SalpiconA salpicon is nothing more than an ingredient diced small and uniform, usually bound in a sauce. Here it means mushrooms cut in quarter-inch dice, cooked first in butter until their water has gone, then folded in warm so they do not cool the eggs.
• Mushrooms of the periodThe recipe does not specify a variety; cultivated white mushrooms, fresh or preserved in tins and bottles, were both available to a kitchen of this scale. Fresh cremini give more flavour; if using tinned, drain and dry them well, or the eggs will weep.
• Madeira sauceNo. 492 is the book's Madeira sauce, in this period normally a brown half-glaze reduced with Madeira. A modern substitute is a reduced brown stock mounted with butter and a splash of dry or Sercial Madeira, poured in a ribbon around the eggs rather than over them, so the surface of the eggs stays clean.
• CroûtonsNo. 51 is the book's fried bread croutons; the recipe here says simply bread fried in butter. Clarified butter is worth using, as whole butter browns and burns before the bread crisps.
• YieldThe original gives none. Reckon two to three eggs per person as a first course, with roughly two tablespoons of diced mushroom for every three eggs.