No. 902

Croustades a la Morgan or with Scrambled Eggs and Truffles

Croustade a la Morgan ou aux Oeufs Brouilles aux Truffes

Peel and steam some sweet potatoes, then pound them with a little butter and a few egg-yolks; fill some six sided molds (Fig. 221) previously laid in ice water and drained, press in well the potato, and set them on the ice to become cold, unmold and roll them in cracker dust, dip them in eggs and bread-crumbs, and mark an incision on top with a pastry cutter three-quarters of an inch in diameter; fry them a fine color, remove the cover, empty out the insides, and fill them with some mushrooms, artichokes, and fat livers cut in three-sixteenths of an inch squares, and mixed in a saucepan with a sufficient quantity of poulette sauce (No. 527). When all are filled, range them on a folded napkin.

For Scrambled Eggs and Truffles.—Fill the empty spaces with a preparation of eggs scrambled with truffles and grated cheese.

← No. 901 Croustades a la Piedmontese Hot Side Dishes No. 903 Crusts of Clams a la Schenk →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's side dish built as an edible container: a stiff sweet-potato paste is molded, chilled, breaded, fried, hollowed out and filled. Nothing here is difficult, but the sequence is unforgiving if the paste is too wet or too warm.

The hinge: a dry, cold pasteSteam rather than boil the sweet potatoes so they take up no extra water, and pound them stiff enough to hold a shape without slumping. They must be genuinely cold and firm from the refrigerator before breading, or the shells split and absorb fat in the fryer.
The moldsRanhofer calls for six-sided molds (Fig. 221). Straight-sided dariole molds, small ramekins or even 6 oz metal timbale cups do the same job. The recipe directs that the molds be laid in ice water and drained beforehand, presumably to help the paste release cleanly.
Cracker dustPlain unsalted soda crackers or water biscuits crushed fine, not seasoned crumbs. The first coat of cracker dust dries the surface so the egg wash grips; skipping straight to breadcrumbs gives a patchy crust.
Frying temperatureRanhofer says only to fry them a fine color and gives no temperature or time. In modern terms, deep fat around 350-360F: the interior is already cooked, so you are only setting the crust, and hotter fat colors the crumbs before the shell firms.
"Fat livers"Foies gras — the enlarged livers of fattened goose or duck, sold cooked in tins or as raw lobes. Chicken livers, quickly sauteed and diced, are the ordinary substitute; the texture is firmer and the flavor sharper.
Poulette sauceRanhofer sends you to his No. 527, not reproduced here. Poulette is classically a velvety white sauce, velouté or allemande finished with egg yolks, butter, lemon juice and chopped parsley. Keep it thick enough to bind the diced filling, and do not let it boil after the yolks go in.
Artichokes and trufflesCooked artichoke bottoms, quartered and diced, not marinated hearts from a jar. For the egg version, a small tinned or jarred truffle goes a long way; without truffle the scrambled-egg filling is simply eggs and cheese and should be seasoned accordingly.
The eggs, if you take that optionScramble them slowly over low heat, stopping while still loose — they continue to set in the hot shell. Fill at the last moment and send the dish out immediately.
Yield and serviceRanhofer gives no portion count; a croustade apiece suits a hot side dish. The direction to range them on a folded napkin is standard period service for fried items.

A Little History

This is No. 902 from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous compendium of the food he served during three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York. A croustade is properly a fried or baked case — usually bread or pastry — hollowed to hold a ragout; substituting sweet potato is a distinctly American turn on a French form. The garnish of foie gras, mushrooms, artichoke and truffle bound in poulette sauce is standard high-service French cookery of the period, in which the container mattered as much as the filling: the point of a croustade was that it arrived at the table looking like architecture. Many of the dishes in the book carry the name of a patron or public figure, and "à la Morgan" almost certainly honors a customer in that manner, though Ranhofer, as usual, does not say who.