Consommé Colbert

Consommé Colbert (clear Printanier chicken consommé with a soft poached egg) teaches that a clear soup is finished by restraint. The one true thing is this: don't let the egg and the vegetable garnish cook together. The consommé reaches the plate boiling and brilliant, then the warm poached egg goes in last, its yolk ready to enrich the broth without clouding it.

The original assumed a saucier on staff, chicken consommé never far from the fire, a separate timbale for the eggs, and six dining-room portions. Your honest equivalent is two small saucepans, four warmed soup plates, and the two finished preparations kept separate until service. I have scaled one quart and six eggs to 2⅔ cups and four eggs, preserving the book's proportion exactly. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The separate journey to the dining room was brigade scaffolding, so it can go. What must stay is the sequence: warm the eggs gently, bring the consommé to one clean boil, ladle it, and only then lower an egg into each plate. The gentle warming of the eggs is the step that matters most; simmer them again and the yolks set before supper begins.