Practical household cookery

Boil ten eggs for ten minutes, immerse them afterwards in cold water for a few minutes to get cold, take them out, roll each one after the other on the table to break the shells, which remove with your fingers. Cut them in thick round slices and put into a stewpan. Cut two onions in slices so as to leave them in rings ; blanch in salt water for a few minutes; strain and place in a stewpan with \ "5 a gill of veal broth ; boil and simmer till cooked ; then pour them over the eggs with half a pint of Bechamel sauce, the clove of a garlic chopped very fine, a little nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste, and the juice of a lemon. Set the stewpan on the fire, toss the lot to prevent burning, and as soon as the eggs are made hot, dish up nicely interwoven with the rings of onion and some slices of bread cut the same shape fried in butter, and serve 248. EGGS BROUILLÉS WITH ASPARAGUS POINTS. Break and beat eight eggs into a stewpan with a tablespoonful of grated cheese, three ounces of butter, a gill of cream or milk, and salt and pepper to taste. Set the stewpan on a moderate fire, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, and occasionally shake and toss the stewpan to prevent the contents from attaching itself to the bottom of the pan. When the eggs begin to thicken draw the stewpan by the side of the fire, add twenty small asparagus previously cooked, strained, and cut in small points ; continue to work the eggs and mix with the asparagus-points until the eggs are nicely set, but not hard. Then pour into a hot dish and decorate with croiitons cut triangle-shape, and fried in butter before serving. Note. — ^The same thing can be made with chopped parsley, green peas, mushrooms, truffles, tomatoes, bacon and ham cut in small dice, taking care to previously cook the vegetables in the usual way, or to fry the ham or bacon in butter before mixing with the eggs. 249. EGGS WITH SAUCE. Boil eight eggs in water for ten or twelve minutes, dip in cold water and shell them, cut each egg into halves lengthwise, and place with taste on a hot dish, and put the dish in the open oven. Meanwhile have ready boiling half a pint of either butter, Ravigote, Blanquette, or any other sauce that may be fancied, and pour it over the eggs, and serve. 260. EGGS AU GRATIN. Boil eight or ten eggs hard ; dip them into cold water ; shell and cut in slices; put these by on a plate. Put half a pint of Blanquette sauce into a stewpan, boil it and let it simmer for ten minutes, giving it an occasional stir ; then add half an ounce of butter, two ounces of grated cheese, a little grated nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste, the juice of half a lemon, and the yolks of three eggs; stir the lot quickly over the fire till it begins to thicken, when the stewpan must be drawn away from the fire. Then take a gratin-dish, put the eggs in close circular rows in it, spread some of the mixture out of the stewpan, over and between each layer, obseiTing that the dishingup must be in the form of a dome; smooth the surface over with the remainder of the sauce, sprinkle a handful of bread-crumbs mixed with the same quantity of grated cheese over the top; decorate the base of the eggs with triangular cro^ltons fried in butter, set the dish in a hot oven to gratinate for about ten minutes, and serve 251. EGGS A LA DAUPHINE. Boil twelve eggs hard, plunge them in cold water, take the shells ofP and cut each egg into halves, scoop the yolks out and put in a mortar, place the whites on a dish and keep hot ; add to the yolks a quarter of a pound of butter, about two ounces of the crumb of bread soaked i-4