{"id":3551,"date":"2015-09-07T16:28:56","date_gmt":"2015-09-07T14:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/?p=3551\/"},"modified":"2019-12-09T12:02:52","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:02:52","slug":"eggs-with-gooseberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coquinaria.nl\/en\/eggs-with-gooseberries\/","title":{"rendered":"Eggs with gooseberries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Straight to the recipe<\/small><\/a><\/p>\n

\"18th-centuryAn odd but tasty dish<\/h2>\n
\n

Recently I published an article in the periodical\u00a0De Boekenwereld<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(The Book World<\/em>) on\u00a0Roman Catholic<\/span>\u00a0recipes in the eighteenth-century cookery book\u00a0De Volmaakte Hollandsche Keuken-Meid<\/em>\u00a0(The perfect Dutch Kitchen Maid<\/em>). The indirect cause of that article was a recipe I published on Coquinaria a year ago, a\u00a0Dish for Lent with prunes and raisins<\/a>. The author of\u00a0The Perfect Dutch Kitchen-Maid<\/em>\u00a0took an important part of his recipes from a Dutch adaptation of the\u00a0Le Cuisinier Fran\u00e7ois<\/em>\u00a0(The French Cook<\/em>, first published in 1651). This adaptation was first published in 1701 in Amsterdam as\u00a0De geoeffende en ervaren Keuken-Meester<\/em>\u00a0(The practised and experienced Kitchen-master<\/em>). I mentioned the recipe on this page in\u00a0De Boekenwereld<\/em>\u00a0as one of the recipes that the\u00a0Kitchen-Maid<\/em>\u00a0indirectly borrowed by way of the\u00a0Kitchen-Master<\/em>\u00a0from the\u00a0French Cook<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here you can read the original recipe in the three versions. The differences between the versions are not large, but it is interesting to see how the three authors handle this dish.\u00a0By the way, gooseberries are not in season in autumn (when this recipe was first published). Frozen gooseberries can be bought all year round.<\/p>\n

Triple egg with gooseberries<\/h3>\n

The eighteenth-century dish was meant for\u00a0fish days<\/span>. That is to say: it was for Catholics who abstained from meat on Fridays and often one or two other days every week. Fish was allowed, hence\u00a0fish<\/em>\u00a0days, and dairy products were allowed as well. During Lent, between carnival and Easter, dairy products like eggs, milk, cream, cheese and eggs were forbidden, and only fish, vegetables and fruit were allowed. So the recipe with eggs and gooseberries would not have been eaten during Lent.<\/p>\n

Le cuisinier Fran\u00e7ois<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(The French Cook<\/em>, 1651)<\/strong>\u00a0by Fran\u00e7ois de La Varenne\u00a0is the oldest version of this recipe on this page. In his book, he provides the cook with recipes for meat days, fish days, Lent and\u00a0Good Friday<\/a>\u00a0(no meat, no dairy, no fish) in the order in which they were served. The recipe for eggs with gooseberries is in the chapter ‘Oeufs d’entr\u00e9es’ (eggs as first course) in the part with recipes for\u00a0jours maigres<\/em>, fish days. The version of La Varenne is the most extensive and luxurious of the three. Hard boiled eggs are peeled and sliced, fried, and served in a sauce of either gooseberries or verjuice grapes (unripe grapes that are the basis for\u00a0verjuice<\/a>), with parsley, spring onion and nutmeg. The tart taste of the fruit is accentuated by a dash of heated vinegar. And if the cooks wants to serve a more sophisticated dish, he can add mushrooms, asparagus or capers. These must be fried separately, because otherwise the extra ingredients will not have been cooked thoroughly enough according to the author.<\/p>\n

\"FrontispiceDe Geoeffende en Ervaren keuken-meester<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(The practised and experienced Kitchen-Master<\/em>, 1701)<\/strong>\u00a0has gathered all ‘Catholic recipes’ in a separate volume, with recipes for fish days and Lent, sorted by the category of dish (vegetable dishes, fish entr\u00e9es, egg dishes, fish in the second course, entremets, pasties, three chapters with dishes for lent without eggs, and biscuits and cakes). The Kitchen-Master leaves out the extra options (mushrooms, asparagus, and capers) in his version of the eggs with gooseberries. The spring onion is now simply a regular onion, and verjuice grapes are replaced by verjuice itself. The recipe has clearly been simplified.
\nThe picture on the right is the frontispice of the\u00a0Kitchen-Master<\/em>\u00a0from 1701, coloured by hand..<\/p>\n

De volmaakte Hollandsche Keuken-meid<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(The perfect Dutch Kitchen-maid) from 1746<\/strong>\u00a0has no separate section for Catholic recipes: the chapters are ordered in manner of preparation. The egg dish is listed with three other egg dishes under the heading ‘Fish-day Eggs fried for Catholics, how to fry them’ in the second chapter containing recipes for pasties, tarts, roasts, omelettes, puddings and other baked dishes. Either the author of the\u00a0Kitchen-Maid<\/em>\u00a0misread the recipe from the\u00a0Kitchen-Master<\/em>, or he decided that a choice between parsley OR gooseberries OR chopped onion was enough. In that case the dish has become a very simple one..<\/p>\n

By the way, the combination of eggs and gooseberries is not unique. There is also a\u00a0recipe for omelette with gooseberries<\/a>\u00a0from a late-sixteenth-century Dutch cookbook, the\u00a0Coc-boeck\u00a0<\/em>(cookbook) by Karel Baten.<\/p>\n

The original recipes<\/h2>\n

The recipe at the top is from\u00a0Le cuisinier Fran\u00e7ois,<\/em>\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois de La Varenne (1651, edition Hyman, p. 211, edition Scully p,283), the recipe in the middle is from\u00a0De Geoeffende en Ervaren keuken-meester<\/em>\u00a0(1701, vol.2, p.116) and the third recipe is from\u00a0De Volmaakte Hollandsche Keuken-Meid<\/em>\u00a0(1746, p.46). See the\u00a0bibliography<\/a>\u00a0for more data on the editions). For the recipe of de\u00a0Cuisinier<\/em>\u00a0I have also used Scully’s translation but there are some small differences.<\/p>\n

Oeufs fricassez en tranches
\nFaites les durcir, ostez leur la coquille, & les coup\u00e9s par tranches, puis les fricass\u00e9s auec bon beurre, per
\nsil, siboules* ach\u00e9es, poiure, grozeilles**, ou verjus de grain : Estant bien fricassez & assiasonnez, mettez les dans vn plat auec vn filet de vinaigre pass\u00e9 dans la po\u00ebsle. Si la sauce est trop courte, mettez y vne goutte de bouillon, puis seruez auec muscade : Si vous voulez, meslez y capres, champignons, asperges rompu\u00ebs, fricass\u00e9es auant que les mesler, aussi bien que les champignons, car la cuisson n\u2019en vaudroit rien.<\/em>
\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Scully translates this with ‘chives’. In French, ‘chives’ is\u00a0ciboulette<\/em>\u00a0.
\n**\u00a0\u00a0 Scully translates this with ‘red currant [mash]’, but because\u00a0grozeilles<\/em>can also mean ‘gooseberries’ and that is what the Dutch recipes mention, I have chosen ‘gooseberries’ in my translation.<\/small><\/div>
Sliced fricasseed eggs
\nHard-boil them. Shell them and slice them. Then fricassee them with good butter, parsley, chopped spring onion, pepper [and]berries or verjuice grapes. When they are well done and seasoned, put them in a dish with a dash of vinegar heated in a pan. If the sauce is too reduced, add a drop of bouillon; then serve with nutmeg. If you like, mix in capers, mushrooms, broken asparagus stalks that are – like the mushrooms -fricasseed beforehand because, otherwise, the cooking time is too short.<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gefruyte Eyeren, in sneeden
\nLaat uwe Eyeren hard kooken, ontdoptse, en snijdse aan schijven, dan met Boter, Peeterselie, gehakte Uyen, Peper, Kruysbessen en Verjuys gefruyt* : dan met wat gesnerkte Edik in een Schotel gedaan, en met geraspte Nootemuskaat, opgedist.<\/em>
\n*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The sentence ‘dan met … gefruyt’ is double in the text, probably because the next sentence also starts with ‘dan met’. In the second edition from 1737 this was still not corrected.<\/small><\/div>
Fried eggs, in slices
\nLet your eggs boil hard, shell them and slice them. Then fry them with butter, parsley, chopped onions, pepper, gooseberries and verjuice. Then put them in a (serving) dish with some heated vinegar, and serve with grated nutmeg.<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ander Eijer gebak
\nNeemt eijeren kookt die hard, en schilt ze en snijd ze aan schyfjes, en bakt ze in de pan met boter, en peper, petercelie, of kruis-bessen, of gekapte uijen, en doet \u2018er wat gefruite azijn, en geraspte notemuscaat over, zyn goede gebakke Eijeren, en op een diergelyke wyze, kan men nog veel andere Eijer-gebakken maken.<\/em><\/div>
Other baked eggs
\nTake eggs and boil them hard. Shell them and slice them. Then fry them in the pan with butter, and pepper, parsley, or gooseberries, or chopped onions, and add some heated vinegar and grated nutmeg. These are good fried eggs. And in the same manner one can prepare many other baked eggs.<\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>Modern adaptation of the recipe<\/h2>\n

Use reasonably fresh eggs. Not freshly laid, because shelling these will be rather difficult, but also not weeks old because the air chamber will be too large. The eggs must have been turned regularly during storage, to prevent the yolk floating downwards in the white. Or you could use ‘egg sausage’ (although I abhor this). I have chosen to flour the egg slices before frying them for a ‘golden’ colour, even though none of the recipes mention this. I also fry the slices before preparing the sauce in the same pan, because the slices fall easily apart.
\nFirst course or side dish<\/span>\u00a0foor 4 persons<\/span>;\u00a0preparation in advance\u00a0<\/em>10 minutes<\/span><\/span>;\u00a0preparation\u00a0<\/em>10 minutes<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"A4 hard-boiled\u00a0eggs<\/span>
\n250 gr (1\u00bd cup)\u00a0gooseberries<\/span>
\n2 Tbsp plus 1\u00bd Tbsp\u00a0butter<\/span>
\n1 or 2 Tbsp chopped\u00a0parsly<\/span>
\n1 chopped\u00a0shallot<\/span>\u00a0or the white part of 2 to 4 scallions
\n3 Tbsp wine vinegar
\npepper and nutmeg to taste (freshly grated)
\nsome flour for the egg slices (optional)<\/p>\n

Preparation in advance<\/h3>\n

Shell the eggs and slice them. This can very easily be done with an egg slicer, but then you’ll get rather thin slices. If you use a knife for the slicing, take care that the slices remain whole. Flour the egg slices if you want to.
\nCut the gooseberries in two.<\/p>\n

Preparation<\/h3>\n

Heat two tablespoons butter in a frying pan. Fricass\u00e9e the egg slices on both sides to a golden brown. Remove them from the pan, add the rest of the butter to it. First add the chopped spring onion or shallot, then the gooseberries, parsley and pepper. Simmer until the berries are soft. Mash them with a wooden spatula and remove as many gooseberry skins as you can.
\nHeat the vinegar in a pan or the microwave, and pour it in the sauce just before serving.<\/p>\n

To serve<\/h3>\n

Scoop the sauce onto a serving dish and arrange the egg slices on top. Grate some nutmeg over it and serve.
\nYou can also put the sauce on top, or throw everything together.<\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/h2>\n

All descriptions of ingredients<\/a><\/p>\n

Gooseberries<\/h4>\n

Gooseberries (Ribes grossularia<\/em>) were not cultivated before the thirteenth century, but they are indigenous to Europe. Despite the name, geese do not eat gooseberries. Some say that gooseberries are thus called because of the great combination of gooseberry sauce with fatty meat, like that of goose or mackerel. In the North of France gooseberry sauce was a classic accompaniment to mackerel, a fatty fish (the French call the gooseberry\u00a0groseille maquereau<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0mackerel berry<\/em>).
\nIn the nineteenth century it was believed that the Dutch name\u00a0kruisbes<\/em>\u00a0(litt. ‘cross berry’) was derived from the Finding of the True Cross on May 3rd. But the medieval names\u00a0stekelbesij<\/em>\u00a0(‘prickly berry’) and\u00a0kroeselbesij<\/em>\u00a0(‘curly berry’; the modern word\u00a0kruisbes<\/em>\u00a0is derived from this) indicate that it is the hairy skin that gave the berry its Dutch name (likewise in German:\u00a0Stachelbeere)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bibliography<\/h2>\n

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.<\/p>\n