Eggs Saint-Hubert

Source: Auguste Escoffier, 1907

History

Œufs à la Saint-Hubert is a garnished egg preparation codified and named by Auguste Escoffier in Le Guide Culinaire, his 1903 restaurant-cuisine reference. Its printed formula is a game dish through and through: for the poached or soft-boiled version, a very fine roebuck (chevreuil) hash bound with Civet sauce is domed on a buttered plate and glazed, the eggs are coated with game Poivrade sauce and ranged around the mound, and the whole is edged with blind-baked puff-pastry crescents; the en cocotte version lines the dish with venison (Venaison) purée, poaches the eggs in it, rings the yolks with clear Poivrade, and tops each with a truffle cross.

The name honors Saint Hubert (Hubert of Liège, d. 727), the patron saint of hunters, whose feast day is 3 November. In Escoffier's own nomenclature the "Saint-Hubert" tag attaches to game dishes generally — the book also carries a Consommé Saint-Hubert built on game consommé and venison fumet — so the label marks the dish's game character rather than any documented diner or occasion.

Escoffier compiled Le Guide Culinaire from the elite restaurant kitchens of his own era, not from any royal or court tradition. The historical record I could open does not document where this specific egg dish originated, who ate it, or that it signalled wealth or social status. Beyond Escoffier's codification of the recipe, its early history is undocumented.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. This dish is prepared in two presentations.
  2. FIRST PRESENTATION (Poached or soft-boiled): Arrange a very fine minced venison hash, bound with givet sauce (game stew sauce), in a dome shape on a buttered serving plate. Glaze the dome quickly under heat. Coat the eggs with poivrade sauce (pepper sauce, game version) and arrange them around the hash mound. Encircle the composition with a border of puff pastry crescents baked blind.
  3. Note: For separate service, the eggs may be dressed directly on top of the hash without glazing the hash first.
  4. SECOND PRESENTATION (En cocotte): Line the cocotte dishes with a layer of venison purée. Crack the eggs into the purée and poach them as usual. Surround the egg yolks with a thin line (cordon) of clear poivrade sauce and place a truffle cross on top.

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