Oeuf mayonnaise, sometimes shortened to oeuf mayo, is a simple French egg dish. It is an hors d'oeuvre and is considered a classic bistro dish. A recipe was included in the 1936 cookbook L'Art culinaire moderne by Henri-Paul Pellaprat, which was first translated for American cooks in 1966 as Modern French Culinary Art. [1]
A serving consists of a large chicken egg, which is almost hard-boiled, although it is removed from the heat while the yolk retains a little creaminess. The egg is then chilled, peeled and halved lengthwise. The halves are presented face down on a plate, resembling white domes. Then, the egg halves are entirely covered with a sauce consisting of mayonnaise and Dijon mustard, thinned with enough water or lemon juice that it can be poured with a spoon. [2] [3]
The dish is served either on a leaf of lettuce, or with crudités on the side. It can be garnished with snipped chives, parsley, chervil, fried capers, thin-sliced, roasted red bell pepper or an anchovy fillet. [2] [3] [4]
In the late 1980s, the dish was going out of fashion in Paris, perhaps in part due to concern about eggs being a high-cholesterol food. In 1990, Claude Lebey, author of several restaurant guides, founded a group that he called the Association de sauvegarde de l’oeuf mayonnaise to promote the dish and its proper preparation. [5] [6] Lebey claimed that bistros in the 1980s were "losing their wings" and that oeuf mayonnaise was an "emblematic recipe" which "is as indispensable to the cuisine as the paperclip is to office work." [6] Lebey commented "Oeuf mayonnaise cannot be explained. It must be savored." [3]
Lebey retired in 2013 and died in 2017. His grandson, Vincent Brenot, is keeping the organization going. Brenot says that the dish "looks very simple, but is actually quite complex to do if you want to make it extremely good", adding that "the length of the cooking of the egg is also of the essence." [6]
Cookbook writers like Elizabeth David and chefs like Joël Robuchon [6] and Alice Waters [4] are advocates for oeuf mayonnaise.
Sweetbread is a culinary name for the thymus or pancreas, typically from calf or lamb. Sweetbreads have a rich, slightly gamey flavor and a tender, succulent texture. They are often served as an appetizer or a main course and can be accompanied by a variety of sauces and side dishes.
Mayonnaise, colloquially referred to as "mayo", is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar sauce, fry sauce, remoulade, salsa golf, ranch dressing, and rouille.
Egg salad is a dish consisting of chopped hard-boiled or scrambled eggs, mustard, and mayonnaise, and vegetables often including other ingredients such as celery.
Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs stirred, whipped, or beaten together typically with salt, butter, oil, and sometimes other ingredients, and heated so that they form into curds.
A soufflé is a baked egg dish originating in France in the early 18th century. Combined with various other ingredients, it can be served as a savoury main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler, which means to blow, breathe, inflate or puff.
Hollandaise sauce, meaning Dutch sauce in French, is a mixture of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice. It is usually seasoned with salt, and either white pepper or cayenne pepper.
Deviled eggs, also known as stuffed eggs, Russian eggs, curried eggs or dressed eggs, are hard-boiled eggs that have been peeled, cut in half, and filled with the yolk, mixed with other ingredients such as mayonnaise and mustard. They are generally served cold as a side dish, appetizer or a main course during gatherings or parties. The dish's origin can be seen in recipes for boiled, seasoned eggs as far back as ancient Rome, where they were traditionally served as a first course. The dish is popular in Europe, North America and Australia.
Salade niçoise is a salad that originated in the French city of Nice. It is traditionally made of tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives and anchovies or tuna, dressed with olive oil, or in some historical versions, a vinaigrette. It has been popular worldwide since the early 20th century, and has been prepared and discussed by many chefs. Delia Smith called it "one of the best combinations of salad ingredients ever invented" and Gordon Ramsay said that "it must be the finest summer salad of all".
An egg sandwich is a sandwich with some kind of cooked egg filling. Fried eggs, scrambled eggs, omelette, sliced boiled eggs and egg salad are popular options. In the last case, it may be called an egg salad sandwich.
Spoonbread is a moist cornmeal-based dish prevalent in parts of the Southern United States. While the basic recipe involves the same core ingredients as cornbread — namely cornmeal, milk, butter, and eggs — the mode of preparation creates a final product with a soft, rather than crumbly, texture. As the name implies, the consistency is soft enough that it needs to be served and eaten with a spoon.
Jeremiah Tower is an American celebrity chef who, along with Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, has been credited with pioneering the culinary style known as California cuisine. A food lover from childhood, he had no formal culinary education before beginning his career as a chef.
Michael Carl Ruhlman is an American author, home cook and entrepreneur.
Shirred eggs, also known as baked eggs, are eggs that have been baked in a flat-bottomed dish; the name originates from the type of dish in which it was traditionally baked. Shirred eggs are considered a simple and reliable dish that can be easily varied and expanded upon. An alternative way of cooking is to crack the eggs into individual ramekins, and cook them in a water bath, creating the French dish œufs en cocotte.
A tuna fish sandwich, known outside the United States as a tuna salad sandwich or a tuna sandwich, is a sandwich made from canned tuna—usually made into a tuna salad by adding mayonnaise, and sometimes other ingredients such as celery or onion—as well as other common fruits and vegetables used to flavour sandwiches. It is commonly served on sliced bread.
A cordon bleu or schnitzel cordon bleu is a dish of meat wrapped around cheese, then breaded and pan-fried or deep-fried.
Olivier salad is a traditional salad dish originating in the Russian Empire, created by French and Belgian chef Lucien Olivier.
Henri-Paul Pellaprat was a French chef, founder with the journalist Marthe Distel of Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. He was the author of La cuisine familiale et pratique and other classic French cookery texts. He worked from the age of twelve as a pastry boy and then cooked at many of the most famous restaurants of the La Belle Époque Paris such as the Maison Dorée. He taught at l’École du Cordon bleu for 32 years; his students including Maurice Edmond Sailland, later known as Curnonsky, and Raymond Oliver.
Claude Lebey was a French food critic and the author of Guide Lebey.
Florentine or à la Florentine is a term from classic French cuisine that refers to dishes that typically include a base of cooked spinach, a protein component and Mornay sauce. Chicken Florentine is the most popular version. Because Mornay sauce is a derivation of béchamel sauce which includes roux and requires time and skill to prepare correctly, many contemporary recipes use simpler cream-based sauces.
Adapted for the American Kichen by Avanelle Day
{{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)