SC - Fw: [Mid] Feasts: Serving and Carving

[Bonnie Clapshaw]

Hi all from Anne-Marie
Meadhbh asks about late period uses for quail eggs.
My favorite type of egg involved fingerfood is from la Varenne, 1651,
French. Hardboiled eggs are stuffed with a mixture of their own yolks,
butter, vinegar and sauteed herbs. Deviled Eggs a la 17th century. There is
a similar recipe in Epilario including a dressing of vinegar, etc.

If you don't want to fuss (ie want to spend your energies on other things),
I've been known to slice them in half, and sprinkle with a good quality
dark balsamic vinegar. Looks good, tastes great. No documentation, alas,
but there you go.

The reconstruction for the Stuffed Eggs....oh and if you use my recipe,
please let me know. I'm sure to give permission, I just like the grins I
get from knowing my food is being eaten thousands of miles away! :) Sorry,
but my cut and paste doesnt work so good, so the citation footnotes didn't
make it into this message. Let me know if you need them.

Enjoy!

STUFFED EGGS: This version tastes very similar to the familiar modern
deviled egg (sans paprika, of course). There is an earlier version in
Epilario , but la Varenne updates it by omitting the very medieval sauce of
vinegar and spices and using instead fresh herbs to flavor. These eggs
travel well and are an easy and elegant potluck or tourney dish. Prepare
the egg yolks and put into a zip lock bag, and put the halved egg whites
into another. When you're ready to serve, snip off one corner of the bag
with the yolk stuffing in it and fill the egg halves by squeezing the
plastic bag like a pastry bag.

1. Eggs farced [la Varenne #1 p294]
Take sorrell, alone if you will, or with other herbs, wash and swing them,
then mince them very small, and put between two dishes with fresh butter,
or passe them in the panne; after they are passed, soak and season them;
after your farce is sod, take some hard eggs, cut them into halfs, a
crosse, or in length, and take out the yolks, and mince them with your
farce, and after all is well mixed, stew them over the fire, and put to it
a little nutmeg, and serve garnished with the whites of your eggs which you
may make brown in the pan with brown butter.

Our version:
2T butter
1 T dill, minced
6 hardboiled eggs
2 green onions, minced
1 pinch salt
1 tsp fresh savory, minced
1 tsp fresh sorrell, minced
1 T balsamic vinegar
pinch nutmeg

Cut eggs in half longwise, and remove yolk. Sautee savory, sorell, green
onion and dill in 1 T of the butter. Add the vinegar, salt, nutmeg and rest
of the butter. Mix the egg yolks with the sauteed herb stuff, and stir over
low heat till smooth and thick. Fill the egg white halves and serve. If you
wish, you may fry the egg white halves in brown butter before filling, but
we found that this makes them rubbery.
Makes 12 filled egg halves, with some leftover stuffing goop. Oh darn.


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