ŒUFS SUR LE PLAT.
This simple, yet capital method of doing eggs should be noted. Spread a tablespoonful of butter on a fireproof dish, dust over it a seasoning of pepper and salt, and slip two eggs into it, carefully avoiding breaking the yolks ; dust over again with pepper and salt, and put the dish in the oven, adjusting the latter for top heat if you possess a regulator, and protecting the former from heat below by placing it on a wire drainer. Let them set in the butter, as a poached egg sets in water ; the moment they are sufficiently firm, serve in the dish in which they were cooked.
A higher form of this old dish is œufs au miroir. The process is virtually the same except that the yolks of the eggs are glazed, as it were, with a small quantity of boiling butter ; the whites are sprinkled with salt to prevent their being miroitées. The dish is then set in the oven in the same was as the foregoing till the yolks are glazed, it is then taken out, and if the eggs are not quite cooked, that must be completed on the hot-plate of the range. Œufs au miroir are not served in the dish in which they were cooked ; they are neatly trimmed round, superfluous white being removed, lifted carefully with a slice, and dished on a hot dish.
Eggs cooked in either of these ways can be served with at least forty variations, according to the adjuncts associated with them :–au jambon, au langue de bœuf, aux herbes, aux champignons, aux truffés, and so on. Take the first :–Sprinkle over the buttered dish a layer of grated ham, moisten with melted glaze and broth a quarter of an inch deep, lay the eggs on this bed, and set the dish in the oven till the eggs are lightly set. Any tasty mince will do diluted with broth and glaze, or good white sauce, as the case may be.
As, however, œufs au miroir are not presented in the dish in which they were cooked, their adjunct must be cooked separately and neatly arranged with the trimmed eggs in the légumière in which the latter are sent up.
Eggs broken gently over very finely grated cheese that has been sprinkled over a good layer of butter in a fireproof china dish, put into the oven, and allowed to set, are called œufs sur le plat au fromage : they should be dusted with pepper and salt before serving.
Œufs sur le plat au jus. In this case the bottom of the dish is moistened with strong gravy—that saved from a roast joint, for instance—the eggs are broken into it and the dish is put in the oven till the eggs are set. The yolks may be glazed with a little boiling butter, if liked, in which case the whites should be dusted with salt.