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Scrambled Eggs, Mariniere
Place six large, freshly opened oysters in a small saucepan with six heads canned mushrooms and six cooked, shelled fresh shrimps. Pour in a half gill white wine, two saltspoons salt and half saltspoon cayenne, poach on a brisk fire for five minutes, lift up shrimps, oysters and mushrooms with skimmer and cut in small square pieces. Break eight fresh eggs in a bowl, pour in two tablespoons cream, one tablespoon of the fish liquor, season with a half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons pepper and beat up with a fork for one minute. Heat one tablespoon melted butter in a frying pan, drop in eggs and cook for four minutes, frequently stirring meanwhile, then add above mixed articles, mix well and cook for two minutes, briskly stirring meanwhile, dress on a deep, hot dish and serve.
A shellfish scramble from the era when eggs were treated as a sauce carrier rather than a fast breakfast. The measurements are restaurant shorthand and the poaching time is the one thing worth ignoring.
- Saltspoons and gillsA saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon, so two saltspoons is 1/2 teaspoon and half a saltspoon is a scant 1/8 teaspoon. A half gill is 1/4 cup, or 2 fluid ounces, of white wine.
- The oystersFive minutes on a brisk fire will shrink and toughen freshly opened oysters. Poach them only until the edges ruffle, about a minute, then lift them out; the shrimp are already cooked and need no more than warming through.
- Keep the liquorOnly one tablespoon of the poaching liquid goes into the eggs, and that is deliberate — more will thin them and they will weep. Reserve the rest to moisten the finished dish or to build a sauce.
- Low heat, not briskEight eggs in one tablespoon of butter over any real heat will set before you can stir them. Use a wide pan over medium-low, stir constantly, and pull the pan while the curds are still glossy; the two minutes with the shellfish added will finish them.
- Canned mushroom headsThese are whole button caps in brine, still sold in cans. Drain and rinse them, or substitute six small fresh buttons sautéed in butter, which taste better and give up less water.
- Cutting up the garnishDicing the oysters, shrimp and mushrooms small is not fussiness — it lets them fold into soft eggs without breaking the curds apart.
- YieldEight eggs and a modest amount of shellfish serve four as a first course, or two generously at lunch. A deep warmed dish matters, as this scramble cools fast.
Marinière means simply "in the sailor's manner," and in French kitchen usage it signals shellfish cooked in white wine — the same logic that gives us moules marinière. Turn-of-the-century American hotel and club cookery is often said to have taken the term loosely, applying it to dishes finished with oysters, shrimp and a wine-scented liquor, which may be how a plate of scrambled eggs comes to carry a fisherman's name. The dish belongs to a period when oysters were cheap and abundant on both American coasts and were used as freely as mushrooms are now, chopped into stuffings, sauces, croquettes and egg dishes rather than reserved for the half shell. The instruction to cook "on a brisk fire" is generally taken as a sign that such recipes were written by and for professionals working over coal ranges, where the cook is said to have regulated heat by moving the pan rather than turning a dial.