Mastering the Art of French Cooking | Julia Child

Recipes 36-37

- Oeufs sur Canapés [Poached Eggs on Canapés], p. 118
- Oeufs Mollets [Six-minute Boiled Eggs], p. 118

You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking which contains these recipes here.

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Butter Count: +6 TB

Cost: $6.87 [~$1.15 per serving]

Cheese-lovers, brace yourselves.. for the most delicious thing you may ever read about. I am partly sad that I “quickly” made this dinner for only myself with nobody to enjoy it with. This sauce is one that you will be talking about years to come.

I would recommend making these with actual poached eggs as the name of the dish says. However, to mark another recipe off, I went with the alternative option Julia suggested which was the 6 minute boiled egg which turned out great as well. You begin by cooking the shallots and garlic in butter without browning. One of my most favorite smells! Wine and stock is added and made into a reduction which smells just as fabulous.

Cream and cornstarch are added to the reduction to make it the perfect consistency. Then the cheese. My favorite part! Swiss cheese, salt/pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. It was difficult to get a good photo of it, but, trust me, it tasted 1000 times better than how my picture looks.

Preparing the eggs was super simple. Simply place eggs in boiling water and cook for 6 minutes (hence the name). As soon as time is up, run under cold water. This will set the white, and they will become cool enough to peel. The canapés were a little harder to make. Canapés are oval slices of bread sautéed in clarified butter. Clarified butter is the clear, yellow top layer of butter when you melt it. I’m almost positive I did not use the correct type of bread as I literally just cut my everyday sandwich bread into circles. They will get sautéed until lightly brown. Careful not to burn- they cook fast (I know from experience…).

When everything is done, assemble by placing an egg on the canapé, spooning sauce over, and sprinkling with a little more cheese and butter. Place in the broiler before serving to brown the top of the sauce lightly.

Just look at that egg! The lightly sautéed bread, cheese sauce, and runny egg come together so well. Try it for yourself!

You can find these recipes and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Bon appétit!

July 8, 2019 by Laura Ehlers