Poached Eggs with Gravy (Entremets)

Instructions

1. Dress the eggs as above, giving them as good an appearance as possible, lay them into a very hot dish, and sauce them with some rich, clear, boiling veal gravy, or with some Espagnole.
2. Each egg, for variety, may be dished upon a crouton of bread cut with a fluted paste-cutter, and fried a pale brown: the sauce should then be poured round, not over them.
3. Poaching is the best mode of dressing a swan's egg, as it renders it more than any other delicate in flavour; it is usually served on a bed of spinach.
4. Only the eggs of quite young swans are suited to the table: one is sufficient for a dish.
5. It may be laid on a large crouton of fried bread, and sauced with highly flavoured gravy, or with tomata-sauce well seasoned with eschalots.
6. Note: We fear that want of space must compel us to omit some other receipts for swans' eggs, which we had prepared for this chapter.