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Poached Eggs, Chasseur
Heat in a small saucepan one tablespoon melted butter, add and brown for three minutes four medium, peeled shallots, Moisten with a half gill white wine, tablespoon sherry and one and a half gills demi-glace; add six finely sliced canned mushrooms, an ounce ham cut in small julienne strips, half teaspoon finely chopped chives and saltspoon cayenne pepper, lightly mix and boil for ten minutes. Prepare twelve poached eggs dress on a dish without any toast, pour sauce over eggs and serve.
A hunter's sauce built on demi-glace and poured over poached eggs — a light supper or luncheon dish rather than a breakfast. The whole thing hinges on having real demi-glace ready before you start.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so a half gill of white wine is 1/4 cup and one and a half gills of demi-glace is 3/4 cup. A saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon, which is a lot of cayenne for this quantity of sauce — start with less.
- Demi-glace is the recipeThis is a compound sauce with nowhere to hide: it is brown stock reduced with espagnole until glossy and thick enough to coat. Commercial demi-glace concentrate works, diluted well below the strength printed on the tub, since it will reduce further during the ten-minute boil.
- Slice the shallotsThe original browns four whole peeled shallots and never removes them, which leaves you with soft lumps in the sauce. Slice or finely chop them so they melt into the finished sauce, and keep the heat moderate — scorched shallot turns the whole thing bitter.
- Canned mushroomsCommon enough in kitchens of this period, and here they go in with everything else for the ten-minute boil. Fresh cremini, sliced and sauteed in the butter alongside the shallots until they have given up their water, give a better result.
- The ten-minute boilThis is a reduction, not a simmer to cook the ingredients. Expect the 3/4 cup of demi-glace to tighten noticeably; if it goes past nappe consistency, loosen it with a spoonful of stock rather than more wine.
- Timing the eggsPoach the eggs last, or hold them in warm water while the sauce reduces. Three minutes in barely trembling water gives a set white and liquid yolk; the recipe specifies no toast, so the yolk and sauce meet directly on the dish.
- YieldTwelve eggs serves six as a first or luncheon course, two per person. The sauce works out at little more than a spoonful per egg, and the recipe scales down cleanly by half.
Chasseur is French for hunter, and in classical cookery the name marks any sauce of shallots, mushrooms and white wine finished with a brown base — the flavours associated, at least traditionally, with game brought in from the field and cooked quickly with whatever was at hand. By the time this book was compiled the garniture had long since detached itself from game: it was applied to chicken, veal, and as here to poached eggs, one of the many egg dishes that filled the luncheon menus of large hotels and restaurants.