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Shirred Eggs, Macedoine
Heat a tablespoon butter in a frying pan, add a tablespoon flour, stir well while heating for half minute, then pour in one and a half gills milk and mix with a spoon until it comes to a boil. Plunge a half pint macedoine in boiling water for two minutes, thoroughly drain on a sieve, then add to the cream sauce. Season with three saltspoons salt, half saltspoon grated nutmeg and two saltspoons white pepper, mix and let boil for six minutes and evenly divide into six shirred-egg dishes. Crack two fresh eggs into each dish, season evenly with a half teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper, set in the oven for three minutes, remove and serve.
A béchamel-bound vegetable base with eggs baked on top, portioned into six individual dishes. Everything here works except the oven time, which is far too short.
- The three-minute ovenThree minutes will not set the whites, whatever the heat. At 375-400F, shirred eggs in a shallow dish need roughly 8-12 minutes for firm whites and still-soft yolks. Judge by the whites turning opaque rather than by the clock.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so one and a half gills is 3/4 cup of milk. A saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon: three saltspoons of salt is 3/4 teaspoon, two of white pepper is 1/2 teaspoon, which is assertive but deliberate in a nutmeg-scented sauce.
- The second seasoning is ambiguousThe half teaspoon of salt and two saltspoons of pepper for the eggs are given for all six dishes together, which works out to a scant pinch each. Season the eggs individually and lightly rather than trying to divide it literally.
- MacedoineNot a product but a preparation: mixed vegetables cut in small even dice, classically carrot, turnip, green beans and peas. Half a pint is about a cup. Frozen mixed vegetables are the closest modern equivalent and need only the two-minute blanch given here.
- Boiling the sauce six minutesSix minutes of boiling will cook out the raw flour taste and reduce the sauce somewhat. Stir it and keep the heat low.
- Shirred-egg dishesSmall shallow individual dishes with low sides. Buttered ramekins or a 5-inch cast-iron pan per person work; depth is the enemy, since a deep dish steams the eggs instead of baking them.
- YieldSix servings of two eggs each, twelve eggs in all. As a brunch or supper dish it wants toast and nothing more.
- Soft eggsYolks left runny in the traditional style are not fully cooked. For anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or immune-compromised, use pasteurized eggs or bake until the yolks are firm.
Macédoine is French kitchen shorthand for a mixture of small diced vegetables or fruits, the name generally traced to Macedonia and the many peoples gathered under Alexander's empire, a mixture standing in for a medley. By the nineteenth century it was standard restaurant vocabulary, used both for a garnish and for the jellied vegetable salads of the buffet table. Shirred eggs, oeufs sur le plat, belong to the same professional idiom: eggs cooked and served in the small dish they were baked in.