No. 3164

Snow Eggs Molded

Œufs a la Neige Moules

Take a cylindrical mold having wide channels; butter it with clarified butter and glaze over with sugar. Beat up five or six egg-whites to a stiff snow with a grain of salt, adding slowly to it half a pound of powdered sugar, a part of it flavored with lemon peel. With this preparation fill the glazed mold and set in a saucepanful of boiling water to reach to half its height; poach in a slack oven until it becomes firm, and lastly unmold on a dish; cover the bottom of this with a little English cream flavored with lemon (No. 42) and serve more of it separately.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a molded meringue baked in a water bath and served with crème anglaise — essentially floating islands made as one large shape rather than spoonfuls. Nearly everything hangs on gentle heat.

The hinge: low heat, alwaysThe hinge: low heat — A meringue baked too hot will puff, crack, and then collapse and weep as it cools. "Slack oven" in period usage means a cool oven, broadly in the 250-300F region, and the water bath keeps the mold gentler still. Bake until the center is set to the touch and cool slowly before unmolding; timing depends on the size of the mold.
"Powdered sugar"In period usage this generally means finely ground granulated sugar, close to what is now sold as caster or superfine. Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch and will give a chalkier, denser meringue. Half a pound is about 225g against five or six whites (roughly 150-200g), a sugar-heavy meringue.
The moldA "cylindrical mold having wide channels" is a fluted cylindrical mold. Butter it with clarified butter, then turn sugar around the inside and tip out the excess; the sugar layer helps the set meringue release.
Water bath depthBoiling water to half the mold's height, and it should stay at a bare tremble in the oven, not a boil. A roasting pan with a folded towel underneath keeps the mold from rattling and the water from getting too hot at the base.
Lemon flavoringA common period method is to rub lump sugar over a lemon until it is stained yellow, then crush it — this takes the oil rather than the pith. Fine zest worked into part of the sugar does the same job. Add the flavored sugar toward the end of beating so the whites do not slacken.
English cream (No. 42)Crème anglaise: yolks, sugar, and scalded milk or cream stirred over low heat until it coats the spoon, around 170-180F. It curdles above about 185F, so strain it as soon as it thickens and chill it before serving.
Unmolding and servingLet the meringue rest out of the water before turning out, run a thin knife around the flutes, and invert onto the serving dish. It is fragile and will weep as it stands, so assemble close to service.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, and this entry sits immediately after the classic spooned version, No. 3163: œufs à la neige, a dish documented in French cookery well before the nineteenth century. The molded form here is one tall fluted shape that can be carried to the table whole and sliced, rather than a bowl of loose islands. The technique of glazing a buttered mold with sugar, and of poaching egg foams in a bain-marie rather than in liquid, belongs to the same family of methods that produced the baked soufflé pudding and the crème renversée. Custard is served both under the dish and separately in a sauceboat.