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Fried Poached Eggs, Perigueux
Have three quarts boiling water in a saucepan with three tablespoons vinegar and a tablespoon salt. Crack six fresh eggs in the boiling water and poach for four minutes, lift them up with a skimmer and drop in cold water. Proceed in same manner with six more, take up from water, neatly trim to round shape and drain them on a cloth.
Finely chop one medium truffle and two ounces cooked, lean ham, mix both on a plate, roll eggs in a little melted butter, then in mixture and dip them in bread crumbs. Arrange in a frying basket, fry in boiling fat for two minutes, lift up and drain them well in the basket. Sprinkle a little salt over, dress on dish with a folded napkin, decorate with a little parsley and serve.
Twelve eggs poached, chilled, coated in truffle and ham, and deep-fried for two minutes. The whole thing hinges on getting the whites firm enough to survive handling while the yolks stay soft.
- Do not actually boil the poaching waterBring the three quarts to a boil, then drop it to a bare simmer, around 180-190F, before the eggs go in. A rolling boil shreds the whites into rags, which is exactly what you cannot afford here.
- Four minutes is for firm whitesThat timing is longer than a modern soft poach because these eggs must be trimmed, coated and fried without collapsing. Expect the yolk to be thickly runny rather than liquid; the two-minute fry will set it further.
- Vinegar and saltThree tablespoons of vinegar in three quarts helps the whites coagulate quickly. Use plain white or cider vinegar, nothing with colour, and do not increase it or the eggs take on a sour edge.
- Use very fresh eggsOlder whites spread thin and will not hold a shape. Fresh eggs poach into a compact oval that trims cleanly with a 2.5-inch round cutter.
- The coating needs help stickingMelted butter alone is a weak binder. Pat the chilled eggs completely dry, brush with butter, press on the truffle-ham mixture, then dip in beaten egg before the crumbs so the crust holds together in the fat.
- "Boiling fat" means 375F"Boiling fat" -- Deep fat does not boil at frying temperatures; the phrase describes the visible movement of moisture. Read it as fat somewhere around 350-375F: two minutes should brown the crumbs and warm the egg through without overcooking the yolk. Fry in batches of three or four.
- TruffleOne medium black truffle is a serious expense. Preserved truffle peelings, chopped fine, give much of the effect for far less; truffle oil is a poor substitute here.
- The missing sauceAnything called Perigueux normally arrives with sauce Perigueux, a demi-glace finished with chopped truffle and often Madeira. The recipe omits it entirely. Serve one alongside if you want the dish to make sense as its name promises.
- Yield and serviceTwelve eggs, two per person, serves six as a first course. The folded napkin under the eggs is period presentation and also absorbs frying oil; a wire rack does the second job better.
Perigueux is the principal town of the Perigord, in southwestern France, and in cookery the name is shorthand for one thing: the black truffle. Sauce Perigueux, a demi-glace with Madeira and chopped truffle, is older than any single codifier, and by the turn of the twentieth century any dish carrying the name on a hotel menu was understood to be a truffled one, whether or not the sauce itself appeared. This recipe belongs to the grand-hotel repertoire: a cheap ingredient, the egg, elevated by labour and by a shaving of something costly, then presented on a folded napkin with parsley. Frying an already-poached egg turned a breakfast item into a plated course, and the same logic produced oeufs frits, egg croquettes and the various stuffed and crumbed eggs.