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Eggs, Balfour
Cut off a third of six round rolls at the top, scoop out the soft parts, place them on a tin, then set them in the oven for two minutes, remove, then spread a teaspoon of pate de foie gras in the interior of each roll. Carefully crack six fresh eggs in two quarts boiling water with two tablespoons vinegar and a teaspoon salt and boil for three minutes, lift them up with a skimmer and place an egg in each roll, dress the rolls on a hot dish, evenly pour a Bearnaise sauce over the eggs, arrange a thin slice of truffle on top of each egg and serve.
A composed egg dish of the Delmonico school: a crisped roll case, a spoon of pâté, a poached egg, Béarnaise and truffle. Nothing here is difficult, but the poaching instruction as written will not give you the result the recipe intends.
- Do not boil the eggsEggs cracked into water at a full rolling boil shred into rags. Bring the water to a boil, then drop it to a bare shiver — 180-190F, with only occasional bubbles — before the eggs go in. Three minutes at that heat gives a set white and a liquid yolk, which is what the dish wants.
- Water, vinegar and saltTwo quarts is generous and correct: deep water keeps the eggs from settling on the pan bottom. Two tablespoons of vinegar helps the whites gather; more than that and you will taste it. Poach three at a time rather than six, or they will stick to one another.
- "Set them in the oven for two minutes"The purpose is to dry and crisp the hollowed rolls, not to colour them. The book gives no temperature; a hot oven for two to three minutes will do it. Softer modern bread rolls may need a little longer, and brushing the insides with melted butter first improves both crispness and structure.
- The rollsChoose firm, close-crumbed round rolls that will stand up to sauce — a small crusty kaiser or a dinner roll with real crust. Soft supermarket rolls collapse under a poached egg and Béarnaise within a minute of being sauced.
- Pâté de foie grasA teaspoon per roll is the whole point of the dish's richness. Any smooth liver pâté or mousse will serve; take it out of the refrigerator early so it spreads rather than tears the crumb.
- Béarnaise is assumedThe book expects you to have it from another page. Make it fresh — reduce shallot, tarragon and vinegar, then mount egg yolks with warm clarified butter over gentle heat — and hold it barely warm, around 130F. It cannot be reheated once broken, so make it after the rolls are toasted and before the eggs go in the water.
- TruffleA thin shaved slice of black truffle was a garnish of the period and remains an expensive one. Truffle in oil or a good preserved truffle slice is the honest substitute; truffle oil alone will overwhelm the Béarnaise.
- Yield and timingSix rolls, six eggs — one substantial serving each, or two as a light course. Everything must land at once: sauce held warm, rolls hot from the oven, eggs lifted straight from the water onto a cloth for a second to drain before they go in.
Alexander Filippini spent decades at Delmonico's in New York, and The International Cook Book (1906) carries the house habit of naming composed dishes after the guests and public figures of the moment — a practice that turned a menu into a kind of social register. "Balfour" may point to Arthur James Balfour, British prime minister from 1902 to 1905 and a familiar name in American papers of exactly the years the book was being assembled, though Filippini records no attribution. The construction is thoroughly of its period: the hollowed bread case, foie gras, poached egg, a butter-and-yolk sauce and a truffle slice appear in many turn-of-the-century egg dishes with different names, the variations being largely a matter of which luxury sits under the egg and which sauce goes over it.