Welcome to Week 2 of the 2020 Great Colonial Cook Off!
Before we get started, a little housekeeping….
First off, a HUGE thanks to everyone who cooked along last week. We were blown away by the response. And if we had any lingering doubts about your enthusiasm, they have since been eliminated by your reaction to the late posting of this week’s recipe. To all of you who messaged (Did I miss the post? Is the website down? Is everyone ok?), we just want to say thanks sooooo much for caring about this crazy Cook Off as much as we do. We love you guys! And for the record, I was called out of town at the last minute for work, and in my rush, left my Cook Off files at home. DUH!
This week’s recipe is courtesy of The French Cook by Francois Pierre La Varenne, first published in French in 1651, with the first English translation appearing in 1653.
It laid the foundations for modern French cuisine and revolutionized English cooking. Varenne’s recipes were a departure from medieval-style cooking (heavily spiced, sweet and/or sour) to one that was based on natural flavors, fewer ingredients, a limited use of spices and uncomplicated cooking methods. This week’s recipe definitely fits that mould:
Eggs with Snow
Break some eggs, sever the whites from the yolks; put the yolks in a dish upon butter, and season them with salt, and set them upon hot cinders. Beat and whip well the whites, and a little before you serve, powre (pour) them on the yolks with a drop of rosewater, and the fire-shovels over them, then sugar and serve.
Varenne then adds:
Another Way
You may put the yolks in the middle of your snow, which is made with your whites of eggs whipped, and teeth them before the fire with a dish behind.
We went with the second option for our first attempt. We also kept it super, super simple. Just eggs, salt and a sprinkling of chives to finish it off. The result? Delicious and super impressive looking … at least it was upon immediate removal from the oven. The photo at the top of this post doesn’t do it justice, as I was distracted from the task at hand by a conversation with Merdedes (our resident Lab and Collections genius) about the results of her recent reconnaissance trip to check on the progress of this year’s bakeapple crop. FYI … looks like another three weeks ’til picking people!). In the meantime, the once towering drift of “snow” deflated a lot. Lesson learned? Pitter patter and serve these eggs straight from the oven!
Feel free to riff on this recipe by gently folding your favourite “extras” into the whipped egg whites. Chopped bacon or sausage, grated cheese, green onion …. The possibilities are endless. We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Serves 1 (multiply by as many eggs as you like)
Next up for us is the basic recipe with Varenne’s suggested addition of rosewater and a light sprinkling of sugar. It doesn’t sound particularly appealing. But then again, neither did cod with apples ….
And of course, Lori (like Varenne) will be cooking this dish with “hot cinders” and her trusty salamander (our upscale version of Varenne’s “fire shovel). Video to come!
