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Eggs, Ideal
Cut twelve hard-boiled eggs in two, crosswise, scoop out the yolks and place them in a bowl, adding two teaspoons of caviar, one tablespoon each butter and bread crumbs, a half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, one tablespoon cream, three saltspoons salt and a saltspoon each cayenne pepper and grated nutmeg. Mix well with a wooden spoon until well amalgamated, then fill up the empty half whites with it. Join together as in their original forms, roll gently in melted butter, then in Parmesan cheese, and fry in boiling fat for two minutes. Lift up, drain on a cloth, dress on a dish with a folded napkin, decorate with a little parsley greens and serve.
A deviled-egg filling turned back into whole eggs, breaded in Parmesan and deep-fried. The whole thing hinges on getting the halves to stay married in the fat.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is generally reckoned a quarter teaspoon (some period sources make it less), so this calls for roughly 3/4 teaspoon salt plus about 1/4 teaspoon each cayenne and nutmeg. That is a lot of salt alongside caviar; season the filling to taste and expect to use half or less.
- Joining the halvesMound the filling slightly so the two halves grip, press firmly, and chill the assembled eggs at least 30 minutes before coating. A short toothpick through the equator, pulled out after frying, is insurance the original does not mention.
- Boiling fatThe recipe specifies no temperature, only "boiling fat"; a normal deep-frying heat, around 350-375F, suits the two minutes given, long enough for the Parmesan to set and the filling to warm through.
- The coatingMelted butter alone is a thin glue. For a crust that holds, use finely grated Parmesan (not shredded) and press it on, or dip in butter, then cheese mixed with an equal amount of fine dry crumbs.
- CaviarIn 1906 this meant salted sturgeon roe, cheap and widely sold in America a decade or two earlier though by then dearer as the fisheries declined. Any firm salted roe works; lumpfish or trout roe is closer in price than modern sturgeon.
- Crumbs and cream"Bread crumbs" is unspecified here, but soft fresh crumbs suit the binding job better than the dry sandy kind. If the filling looks loose after mixing, add crumbs rather than more cream.
- Yield and serviceTwelve eggs give twelve reassembled eggs, enough for six as a first course. The eggs are drained on a cloth first and then dressed on a folded napkin, which is a service convention of the period; a rack or paper handles the draining before plating.
The International Cook Book came out of the Delmonico's kitchen tradition, and this dish shows the house style plainly: a familiar preparation given a luxury ingredient and one more cooking step than strictly necessary. Fried stuffed eggs are old and widespread in Italy, where uova ripiene fritte reassemble halved hard-boiled eggs around a bound yolk filling, though whether that tradition lies directly behind this recipe is a matter of inference; the caviar, too, reads as a restaurant flourish rather than a documented one. American caviar was abundant and inexpensive in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, drawn from Hudson River, Delaware and Great Lakes sturgeon, and it turns up in period cookbooks as a seasoning rather than a centerpiece into into sauces, mixed into butters, worked into fillings like this one by the turn of the century the sturgeon fisheries had largely collapsed. The name "Ideal" may simply be a decorative menu title of the sort the era favoured for a dish given a garnish or a fancy treatment, but no firm convention can be documented.