Put a gallon of water in a saucepan on the fire to boil gently, adding a large pinch of salt. When the water boils, break in eight eggs very delicately, without injuring the yolks, and leave them to cook for a few minutes; lift them out with a skimmer and serve on toasts, or otherwise, while still very hot.

Poached Eggs Bourguignonne

Glaze one tablespoonful of meat into a saucepan with one pint of broth or consomme, and boil for a few minutes; add two eggs and poach for a minute and a quarter. Carefully lift the eggs out with a skimmer, and lay them gently on a hot dish. Repeat the operation with ten more eggs, two at a time; when all are on the dish, sprinkle over one ounce of grated Parmesan cheese and place it in a hot oven for one minute to brown. Reduce the gravy in which the eggs were poached to half its original quantity. Pour it carefully around, but not over them, and serve.

Poached Eggs With Anchovy Sauce

Put eight eggs into a saucepan of water and boil for five minutes; then take them out, remove the shells and put them in cold water. Cut off the crust from a stale loaf and cut the crumb into slices about one inch in thickness, and again into oval-shaped pieces about the size of eggs. Cut them transversely around the edge with a sharp knife, put them in a fryingpan of boiling fat and fry them to a light brown. Take them out, split across, removing the bottom part, scoop out a little of the soft inside, fill each cavity with an egg, and put on the tops. Flavor a little bechamel sauce with essence of anchovies, place the egg croustades on a dish, pour the sauce over them, and serve very hot.

Poached Eggs With Bechamel Sauce

Pour one pint of bechamel sauce into a saucepan, and set it on the hot stove; cut twelve hard-boiled eggs in halves, and put them into the hot bechamel sauce; season with white pepper, and warm up thoroughly for three minutes, but without boiling; add one ounce of butter and one saltspoonful of grated nutmeg; pour the whole onto a hot dish, and serve with six croutons of fried bread.

Poached Eggs With Celery Sauce

Boil two heads of well-washed celery in one quart of white broth for fifteen minutes. Take them out, cut in one-inch lengths, return to the pan with the broth leaving it on the stove to keep hot, and season with salt and white pepper. Reduce the liquor to three-quarters (which will require about ten minutes) pour in one gill of hot bechamel sauce, and boil again. Poach twelve eggs and arrange them neatly around a hot dish, pour the sauce in the center, and serve quickly.

Poached Eggs With Mushrooms

Have a quarter of a pound of mushrooms peeled, washed and drained, put them into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of butter, season with salt and white pepper, and squeeze in two or three drops of lemon juice. Cover over the pan and cook for ten minutes over a moderate fire; add about a quarter of a wineglassful of Madeira wine, and reduce to half the original quantity; add one gill of bechamel sauce and bring the whole to a boiling point. Poach twelve eggs. Pour the sauce on a hot dish, keeping the mushrooms in the saucepan, lay the eggs neatly over the sauce in a circle on a dish and place the mushrooms in the center.

Poached Eggs With Wine Sauce

Pour into a stewpan one pint of claret with two sprigs of parsley and a sprig of thyme tied together; also a small onion, one clove of garlic, one clove, salt and pepper to taste; boil for a quarter of an hour; strain through a fine hair sieve and return it to the stewpan. Break in carefully one egg and leave it in one minute, then take it out with a skimmer and place it on a dish; proceed in this manner until eight eggs have been used, then put the dish in a warm place. Work one tablespoonful of flour with a quarter of a pound of butter, put it into the wine sauce, stir over the fire and boil until reduced to a thick cream. Pour the sauce over the eggs, and serve.