Poach six very fresh eggs exactly as in [No. 404]. Cut out from an American bread six round croûtons, arrange them on the hot dish all around. Plunge into hot broth or consommé six artichoke bottoms, take them up and place one on each croûton. Pour the sauce right in the middle of the dish, but not over the eggs; place a slice of truffle on top of each egg, and serve.
1408. Eggs à la Mme. Diaz.
—Have three large sound green peppers, plunge them into very hot fat for two minutes, take them out, and with a coarse dry towel remove the skin of each; then cut each pepper into half, lengthwise, remove the seeds, have a frying pan on the hot range, two tablespoonfuls of either sweet oil or clarified butter. Cut six very thin slices of raw ham, place them gently in the pan, add the peppers also, and then gently cook for fifteen minutes. Prepare six pieces of dry toast, dress them on a hot dish, then place a slice of ham over each toast, then half a pepper over the ham.
Fry six very fresh eggs separately in clarified butter as for [No. 1406], and then gently place one on top of each pepper, and send to the table.
1409. Eggs à la W. W. Ladd, Jr.
—Provide four fine, sound, white Kalamazoo celery. Cut away all the green leaves, and neatly trim it; thoroughly wash twice in cold water, so that no sand will adhere to the celery; cut the three celery, three inches long from the root part, crosswise. Place three pieces in a saucepan with one quart of white broth ([No. 99]). Season with half a tablespoonful of salt, four whole peppers, two cloves, and a sprig of thyme. Cover the pan, and let boil on the range for thirty minutes. Chop up very fine the balance of the celery, then place it in a small saucepan with one ounce of butter, let simmer for five minutes, add two tablespoonfuls of well sifted flour; stir well together, and cook for five minutes longer; gradually add now a cup of either hot or cold milk, stirring well without ceasing while adding it, and until it begins to boil; season with a tablespoonful of salt, and half a saltspoonful of Cayenne pepper, and cook for twenty minutes longer. Remove it from the range, press it through a sieve into a bowl. Well butter a silver dish a foot and a quarter in length by three-quarters in width. Slide a tube (No. 2) into the pastry bag ([No. 1079]), pour the celery purée into it, and carefully press it down two inches from the centre of the dish, commencing at the side of the dish, coming down two inches and a half to the right, continuing going all around giving an oval shape; make another oval border over the other. Crack six fresh eggs in the centre inside the border, then place the dish in the hot oven for five minutes. Take up the celery from the pan, place on a dish, then split each one in two from the cut part down to the root only. Remove the eggs from the oven; open each celery triangular shape, place it jointly around the border so as to make it represent a star. Strain the broth in which the celery was cooked into a hot bowl, add to it a teaspoonful of freshly chopped parsley, mix a little, and then pour about a gill of it around the celery, but not over the eggs, and serve very hot.
1410. Eggs à la D. B. Hill.
—Carefully open (without losing any of their juice) into a bowl twelve medium sized fresh oysters; place them in a sautoire on the hot range, and let come to a boil, skim well, then strain the juice into a bowl, and keep the oysters in a separate bowl for further action.
Place in a pan one tablespoonful of very good butter with a tablespoonful of flour, mix well together with the spatula, then place it on the hot range and let slowly simmer for five minutes, taking care not to let get brown. Add now, little by little, the juice of the oysters, continually stirring meanwhile. Season with a teaspoonful of pepper. (If the oysters were not very salted, a little salt can be added). Stir continually until it comes to a boil, and then let slowly cook for five minutes; add now six sliced mushrooms and the twelve oysters.
Lightly butter a deep silver dish, place the above sauce into it, then carefully crack in six fresh eggs; sprinkle a very little salt over them, sprinkle also the top with a very little clarified butter. Place them in the hot oven for two minutes. Remove from out the oven, decorate the dish with six heart-shaped bread croûtons, and serve.