Oeufs en meurette

I seem to have been writing a lot about food lately & yet I haven’t mentioned the item that most epitomises Burgundy for me now – œufs en meurette. This item seemed to appear on menus everywhere & is something I’ve never seen in any other region of France.

So what is it? The common translation that appeared on so many menus was “Eggs poached in (usually red) wine”.

At first we resisted trying it. The idea of eggs poached in red wine, absorbing some of the rich colour of the wine into the white of egg, was a bit off-putting. However, even before we left Dijon, we’d succumbed to trying them.

The version we tried in Dijon was cooked in white Aligote wine. The wine sauce also included bacon pieces & mushrooms. The lightly poached eggs were placed on some toasted bread & coated in this rich, quite liquidy, sauce. It was served in bowls. When you break into the yolks they ooze into the sauce, enriching it yet more.

By the time we’d got to Beaune we’d progressed to trying the red wine version. Even richer than the white.

They were usually served as a starter, though in some places you could get a larger portion as a main course.

I have to confess we were nearly overwhelmed on the last time we had them. It was as a starter, in the classic red wine version. The only problem was you had three eggs each, a bit heavy when you had a further two courses to go.

I've since had a look in my cookery books at home. I've found a couple of versions of the recipe but neither really capture what we had, desptie being written by French writers.