Oeufs en meurette
A Burgundian classic in which a poached egg gets a sauce worthy of a main course — a red wine reduction with the same bacon, onion and mushroom garnish as boeuf bourguignon. Two moments demand attention. The poaching water is acidulated with vinegar and kept below the boil, since bubbling tears the white to shreds. And the sauce is finished with cold butter off the heat — boiled after that, it splits.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Wine sauce 35 min
- Garnish 15 min
- Poached eggs 10 min
- Serving 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneReduce the wine with shallots by half
Boil the wine with the shallots, garlic, thyme and bay in a wide pan over a lively heat for about 20 minutes, until half the volume remains. Reduction drives off most of the alcohol and concentrates the flavour — unreduced wine gives a thin sauce with a harsh, boozy edge however much butter follows.
Ingredients: 600 ml red wine · 4 pcs shallots · 3 cloves garlic · 3 pcs thyme · 1 pcs bay leaf · 200 ml stock · 1 tbsp plain flour · 60 g butter
Reduced by half — without it the sauce stays thin and boozy.Add the stock and strain
Pour in the stock and cook a further 10 minutes, then strain the sauce through a fine sieve, pressing the shallots. Pieces of aromatic in the finished sauce spoil the smoothness that is half the effect here.
Ingredients: 600 ml red wine · 4 pcs shallots · 3 cloves garlic · 3 pcs thyme · 1 pcs bay leaf · 200 ml stock · 1 tbsp plain flour · 60 g butter
Thicken with butter and flour paste
Work a spoon of flour with a spoon of butter (taken from the sauce butter) into a paste and whisk it into the hot sauce a piece at a time, then simmer gently for 3–4 minutes until the sauce thickens and loses the taste of raw flour. This is beurre manié — it thickens without lumps, unlike flour tipped in directly. Keep the sauce warm over the lowest heat.
Ingredients: 600 ml red wine · 4 pcs shallots · 3 cloves garlic · 3 pcs thyme · 1 pcs bay leaf · 200 ml stock · 1 tbsp plain flour · 60 g butter
Fry the bacon, onions and mushrooms
Render the bacon in butter, add the peeled pearl onions and fry 10 minutes until browned and tender, then the mushrooms for 5. Three garnish elements, exactly as in boeuf bourguignon — the same Burgundian canon.
Ingredients: 150 g smoked bacon · 200 g button mushrooms · 12 pcs pearl onions · 20 g butter
Acidulate the water and never boil it
Bring the water to a boil with the vinegar, then lower the heat until the surface only trembles. Vinegar sets the white faster, and the absence of a boil keeps the egg whole instead of shredding it.
Ingredients: 8 pcs eggs · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 2000 ml water · 4 pcs bread · 1 clove garlic · 3 tbsp parsley
Crack the eggs through a cup
Crack each egg into a cup first, then slide it gently into the water just above the surface. Cook 3 minutes and lift out with a slotted spoon. Work in batches of 3–4 eggs — all eight take about 10 minutes; keep the finished ones in a bowl of warm water. Very fresh eggs have firm whites that gather themselves around the yolk.
Ingredients: 8 pcs eggs · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 2000 ml water · 4 pcs bread · 1 clove garlic · 3 tbsp parsley
Through a cup, just above the water — and no bubbling.Whisk in cold butter off the heat
Take the hot sauce off the heat and whisk in the rest of the cold butter cube by cube, briskly. The sauce turns glossy and thickens. From this moment do not let it boil — at most warm it briefly over a low heat, stirring, because boiling breaks the emulsion and the fat separates.
Ingredients: 600 ml red wine · 4 pcs shallots · 3 cloves garlic · 3 pcs thyme · 1 pcs bay leaf · 200 ml stock · 1 tbsp plain flour · 60 g butter
Cold butter off the heat — and no boiling after.Serve on garlic-rubbed toast
Toast the bread in a toaster or a dry pan and rub it with a cut garlic clove. Set two eggs on each toast, spoon over the sauce, add the garnish and scatter with parsley. Serve at once, while the sauce is hot.
Ingredients: 8 pcs eggs · 3 tbsp wine vinegar · 2000 ml water · 4 pcs bread · 1 clove garlic · 3 tbsp parsley
Before you start
The eggs can be poached ahead
Poached eggs can be made in advance: cook 2.5 minutes, plunge into iced water and keep refrigerated for up to a day. Before serving, dip them 40 seconds in hot water — they come back as if freshly poached.
Wine you would drink
The sauce is essentially concentrated wine, so its faults multiply within it. It need not be expensive, but it must be dry and free of harsh tannins — pinot noir or a light gamay work best.
The sauce a day ahead
The sauce without its butter keeps three days in the fridge and is better the next day. Reheat it, add the cold butter off the heat only at the last moment and poach the eggs fresh — the whole job then takes a quarter of an hour.
