Egg Fours

Ingredients

• hard-boiled eggs
• equal bulk to egg yolks sardines
• salt
• pepper
• lemon juice or vinegar
• olive oil
• minced olives
• pimento strips
• grated cheese
• made mustard
• sour cucumber pickle
• toast strips

Instructions

1. Cut hard-boiled eggs lengthwise into four pieces. Mix the yolks with an equal bulk of drained sardines (freed of skin and bone and minced fine). Season the mixture with salt, pepper, lemon juice or vinegar, and olive oil. Add minced olives if desired. The mixture must be soft but firm enough to shape.
2. Using two spoons, shape the mixture into small ovals. Lay one oval in each quarter of egg white. Top each oval with very narrow strips of pimento, then sprinkle thickly with grated cheese (Edam is recommended).
3. Set in a baking dish and cook in a hot oven for two to four minutes until the cheese is set.
4. If serving as a relish before dinner, lay the finished fours on narrow strips of toast that have been spread with made mustard mixed well with finely minced very sour cucumber pickle.
5. Note: Bacon—sliced thin, fried crisp without scorching, and finely minced—can be used in place of sardines. Variations are possible with onion, a suspicion of garlic, tabasco, Cayenne vinegar, walnut catsup, or Worcestershire sauce. Capers mixed through the mass add wonderful piquancy. However, items that must be crisply fresh, such as celery and lettuce, should not be used.