Eierragout

Eierragout belongs to the East German weekday table, the canteen table, and the kitchen where supper has to be cheap without tasting poor. Hard eggs, a few frozen peas, diced carrots, a light roux, potatoes beside it. That is enough, if you make the sauce yourself. Nicht aus dem Glas.

The regions split quickly once eggs meet sauce. In Berlin and the old eastern kitchens, Eierragout often runs like a small fricassee, pale and mild, with peas and carrots and a little lemon at the end. In the north and west you meet Eier in Senfsauce, eggs in mustard sauce, sharper and plainer, usually without the vegetables. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Same egg, different table.

The step that decides the dish is the heat after the eggs go in. Boil them in the sauce and the yolks chalk up, the whites toughen, and the sauce goes tired. Warm them gently, below a hard bubble, because the eggs are already cooked and only need to take the sauce. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss: lemon and mustard go in at the close, when they still taste bright.

This is thrift cooking, not punishment. The vegetable cooking water can thin the sauce, the potato pot gives you the side dish, and nothing expensive has to happen. Weggeworfen wird nichts, and nobody misses the meat.