This month’s Dinner and a Movie suggestion is It Happened One Night – skip over to Substack to read all about it, and join in!
Say, where d’ya learn to dunk? Finishing school?
Clark Gable cooks scrambled eggs in It Happened One Night, so it seemed serendipitous that I had a recipe for same via Claudette. I would have loved to have cooked this outdoors in the wild on an open fire like she did, but I made it in my fourth floor urban North London kitchen instead (before I moved to the seaside).
For Claudette, this is a Sunday night supper, but we had it for Sunday brunch and it was fab. It made a nice change from the usual Sunday fry-up around these parts, and myself and Mr R really enjoyed it. Something new for the weekend hangover busting menu methinks.
I didn’t soak the ham. It’s hard to get anything other than thinly sliced ham here in the UK and I’m assuming Claudette would have been using nice thick slices of salty ham, hence the soaking? To get rid of the salt? Mostly for my own reference as I’m sure I’ll make this dish again, I used a whole packet of this and it was delicious.
I added the cream to the eggs
then beat them together. If you are new to scrambling eggs, I recommend the Morty method. Morty is an old Manchester friend who showed me this method with unbeaten eggs and I’ve used it ever since. Basically, melt butter over a low heat and add one egg at a time to the pan, stirring constantly and cooking until done, then add the next one. All done over a low heat. This works with beaten eggs too, you just add roughly one egg at a time. Morty’s method always results in lovely creamy eggs – the amount of butter is up to you, I usually use about ½ tablespoon and two eggs per person.
Another tip. If you have a double boiler there will be less risk of an annoyingly sticky eggy saucepan to wash up if you make your scrambled eggs in the top of one. No double boiler? I sometimes use a small saucepan in a larger saucepan that has water in it. It works!
Despite not liking to touch mushrooms, I followed Claudette’s instruction to peel them (bleagh!), which was something I’ve never done before. Perhaps they soak up more of the butter this way?
Claudette’s recipe doesn’t specify how many this serves, but the one cup of ham and five mushrooms seemed about the right amount to serve two (I had MASSIVO mushrooms so just used two), and we had two eggs each for our scramblees.
Naturally I went down a research rabbit hole to try and find out of this way of serving scrambled eggs with a side of onions, mushrooms and ham is a “thing” in New York but I effectively got a Googlewhack. The only result I could find was the very same recipe that I’d used for Claudette’s eggs. INTRIGUING.
Food historians and New Yorkers! What say you about Scrambled Eggs, New York Style?
Oh, and I can’t resist putting in my favourite photo of Claudette. I can’t remember the last time I had a smoker in the flat, but I would absolutely LOVE to have one of these around the place in case I do!
This was tasty! I don’t think I have ever peeled mushrooms before.
Me neither VT, but I guess it gives the dish an extra bit of FINESSE! As they would say on Masterchef…
In the movie, East Side, West Side (1949), which takes place in New York, Van Heflin and Barbara Stanwyck make scrambled eggs with mushrooms and onions – all mixed together. That might answer about it being a NY dish. I don’t know.
OOh, thanks Dave, this is intriguing. I’ve never seen that film, would you recommend it? Jx
Sorry I never got back to you. Yes, Jenny – it’s worth a look. The other stars are James Mason and Ava Gardner – Cyd Charisse is in it, too. Glossy MGM romantic drama with some murder thrown in.
Oooh, sounds right up my street! Will try and track that down – thanks for dropping by! x