There are scrambled eggs, poached eggs and fried eggs, but none of those are the elegant eggs taught to us by Julia Child.

Ingredients:

  • ½ tablespoon butter
  • 1 or 2 eggs
  • Salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. Choose a shallow fireproof baking-and-serving dish about 4 inches in diameter. Place the dish over moderate heat or in a pan of simmering water. Add butter; as soon as it has melted, break in 1 or 2 eggs.
  2. When bottom of egg has coagulated in dish, remove from heat, tilt dish, and baste top of egg with the butter in the dish. Place on baking sheeting, and a minute before serving, set so surface of egg is about 1 inch from red-hot broiler element. Slide dish out every few seconds, tilt, and baste top of egg with the butter in the dish. In less than a minute, the white will be set, and the yolk filmed and glistening. Remove from oven, season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

Variations

1. Use half the amount of butter. After bottom of egg has set, pour on 2 tablespoons of heavy cream and sprinkle with a tablespoon of Swiss cheese. Proceed as above, but basting under broiler is not necessary.

2. Garnish the cooked eggs with sautéed mushrooms, kidneys, chicken livers or vegetables.

...

In 1961, as a recent graduate of the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, Julia Child co-authored the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and launched her career of educating Americans in delicious ways with food. In 1963 she began her own cooking show The French Chef, produced at WGBH. This recipe was published in The French Chef Cookbook*.

Watch these newly digitized episodes from the first year of The French Chef (1963) and learn more about Julia Child's life and career here.

*THE FRENCH CHEF COOKBOOK by Julia Child, copyright © 1968 by Julia Child. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. For online information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet Web Site at randomhouse.com.