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Shirred Eggs, Fines Herbes
Finely chop together two branches parsley, a branch chervil, ten branches chives and six tarragon leaves. Lightly butter six shirred-egg dishes, evenly sprinkle with fines herbes and carefully crack two fresh eggs in each dish. Season evenly with a half teaspoon salt, three saltspoons pepper, equally divide a gill hot demi-glace over, set in oven for five minutes, remove, arrange on a dish and serve.
A straightforward French egg dish that depends on two things the original assumes you have on hand: individual shallow baking dishes and a good demi-glace.
- Shirred-egg dishesThese are shallow individual gratin dishes or oeuf sur le plat pans, about 4-5 inches across, usually metal or porcelain. Wide ramekins or small cast-iron dishes work; anything deep will steam the eggs rather than set them.
- A gillHalf a cup, so about 4 teaspoons of sauce per dish. That is enough to gloss the whites without flooding them.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is about a quarter teaspoon, so three saltspoons is roughly three-quarters of a teaspoon of pepper across twelve eggs. Reduce it if your pepper is freshly ground and aggressive.
- Demi-glaceIn the classical kitchen, espagnole sauce combined with brown stock and reduced. A jarred or frozen demi-glace concentrate is the practical substitute; a reduced, well-seasoned brown stock also works. The recipe specifies it hot, and cold sauce will chill the dishes and lengthen the cooking.
- Oven heatThe book gives none. Use 375-400F, and preheat the buttered dishes for a minute or two so the whites begin to set from below.
- Five minutes is optimisticWith cold eggs and cold dishes, expect 8-12 minutes for whites that are just firm and yolks still soft. Judge by the whites: pull them the moment they lose translucency, since carryover heat in the hot dishes keeps cooking the eggs at the table.
- Fines herbesParsley, chervil, chives and tarragon. Chervil is the hard one to find fresh; if you must, lean on the parsley and tarragon rather than substituting dried chervil, which tastes of nothing.
- YieldSix servings of two eggs each, intended as a first course or a luncheon dish with bread.
Shirred eggs are eggs baked in a shallow dish with butter; the English term is usually connected to shirring, or gathering, though the derivation is not settled. French cookbooks of the period call them oeufs sur le plat. The fines herbes quartet of parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon became standard in classical French cookery and is one of the few classical mixtures still named as such on menus. What dates this version is the demi-glace: a brown meat sauce poured over eggs was unremarkable in a hotel or restaurant kitchen that kept a stockpot going constantly, and the assumption that a cook has a gill of it ready suggests a book written with professionally trained cooks in mind.