GLORIFIED SCRAMBLE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 128, 1 June 1935, Page 18

GLORIFIED SCRAMBLE

THE ENGLISH AND THE EGG

After a survey of the pre-Easter egg situation in France,' I have to admit that the English and the egg have never properly understood one another, states a correspondent in the "Daily Telegraph." From the poultry nest to the consuming the French are wizards with eggs, and, moreover, any egg dish in France is a creation, a composition, a formality served with a flourish of plates and dishes, and it is also a food! Oeuf a la cdque is entitled to it« rhythmic title, for no French maitre d'hotel or maid-of-all-work would allow an egg to rage in boiling, water like the "roaring forties" of an Atlantic storm. Their coaxing method is to place the egg in boiling water and gently boil it for two minutes, then set it off the fire to steep fft« two minutes, so cooking the egg to a creamy perfection which gives -a' boiled egg francais indisputable distinction. • The Americans cook eggs in the shell by placing them in boiling water for seven minutes, off the fire. The egg never boils, but is cooked by the net water; coddling is the word for it. THE TRANS CHANNEL EGG. In the land of the. epicurean every egg recipe pays its respect to the personality and possibility of this modest medium. While the English unimaginatively scramble millions of eggs across slices of toast, the French en masse beat an effusion of herbs, artichokes, brains, meat, mussels, crabs, and lobsters into eggs cooked as a glorious version of the scramble. The dish is cooked with mathematical accuracy and brought to the table in a deep dish, brown and foaming. • ■ ■ If only fried, the trans-Channel egg has frilly edges and a penetrating piquancy from the special sauce served to give it character. In its omelette manner l'oeuf Parisien is truly omnipotent. The amateur cook has 50 recipes at her command, but the expert can throw, perhaps three times that number, in omelettes which are as varied as the. verbs of the first conjugation. ■ PROVOCATIVE FLAVOUR. Your daughter who goes to a Paris finishing school will be given that omelette of the mysterious, provocative flavour "omelette a Toseille," which is unlike anything she will have sampled at home. It is simply , egg and a handful of chopped sorrel, and sorrel is that sharp-tasting green leaf which grows in.the meadows, - A maitre d'hotel will infuse an exciting gamey flavour to one group of omelettes, and impart a magnificent wedding-cake, spicey, fruity sweetness to another. The former are whisked into' foam and then mixed with the blood of the hare, fowl, or lamb. The game omelette is cooked with fresh butter* and great care taken to serve it dry enough to be solid, but cooked only to a turn, so as to retain its lightness. ■ ... If only the English could learn to assemble the egg and the mushroom, with the oeuf and champignon delicacy of France! For the English mushroom is superior to the French. The English field mushroom has its own exclusive, earthy, grassy, freshness and flavour, but the French omelette aux champignons is an epic and overcomes all the insipidity of the-average mushroom. • • FRENCH BRIDE'S "BOUQUET." Almost every young French bride can make the attractive."bouquet" of omelettes, which is a delightful colour scheme and as varied in its taste. The centrepiece of the dish is an ordinary omelette made with' three eggs; a second takes. a shade deeper yellow by being made with two yolks and one white of the egg, and a third is made with two whites and one yellow. The contrasting omelette is one made with plenty of green herbs "to make it leafy green when finished, and a fifth is flavoured with a home-made tomato sauce to give it a deep rose colour. The idea is to serve these five omelettes fresh from the fire, perfect in colouring, and arranged on the dish like a bouquet of flowers to keep them piping hot and good to the taste.