The table of old times,
The Book of Recipes

Massena eggs

Period: 1st Napoleonic Empire / Category: entry

Anne-Marie Nisbet and Victor-André Massena, The Empire at the Table

Ingredients

for 6 persons :

6 large eggs

6 artichoke hearts (cooked and gutted) or 6 artichoke hearts cut into thirds

300 ml store-bought béarnaise sauce

250 ml tomato sauce (optional)

6 small rounds of beef marrow

Salt and pepper

The preparation

1- Cook the artichoke bottoms in boiling salted water until they are tender. Drain and reserve.

2- Blanch the marrow blades in boiling salted water for about 3 minutes. Drain and keep warm.

3- Immerse the eggs in a pan of boiling water for 6 minutes. Remove them and immediately plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking. Gently peel the soft-boiled eggs thus obtained.

4- Arrange an artichoke base or three quarters of artichoke hearts on each plate.

5- Garnish the center with béarnaise sauce, as if to create a sort of nest and place the egg there. If you wish, you can coat each egg with tomato sauce (for my part I prefer to avoid it to avoid mixing too many different flavors).

6- Garnish with a slice of beef marrow, salt and pepper.

Annotations

Masséna eggs are a classic recipe in French cuisine, although their precise origin is shrouded in mystery. It is believed that this recipe was created in honor of Marshal of the Empire André Masséna (1758-1817), one of the great soldiers of the Napoleonic era. Masséna was known for his military victories, and it is likely that chefs of his time wanted to celebrate his successes with a dish named after him.