Cold Eggs à la Reine

Œufs froids à la reine (cold eggs in chicken-lined brioche shells) teach the cold kitchen's essential discipline: temperature is an ingredient. The mayonnaise, chicken, eggs, and aspic must all be cold, but the aspic must still flow. Let warm aspic touch the emulsion and it loosens; let cold aspic set in the bowl and it forms lumps. That is the one true thing to know before touching a pan.

The brigade entry assumed a garde-manger with cooled eggs ready, a saucier's clear stock never off the fire, a pastry station supplying identical cottage brioches, and a drying box keeping them crisp. For four servings, the honest home equivalents are finished Croûtes et Croustades (No. 2393) refreshed in a low oven, one chicken breast poached in good stock, a one-yolk mayonnaise, powdered gelatin, a refrigerator, and a fine brush. Batch service is scaffolding and goes. The soft egg, chicken mayonnaise, truffle, and repeated thin aspic glaze are the dish and stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Finished properly, each croustade is butter-gold and crisp beneath cool chicken mayonnaise, a tender egg, one dark slice of truffle, and a clear glaze that catches the light without becoming rubbery. Before you assemble, make certain the aspic is cool and fluid; that is the step that decides the finish.