I’ve loved shirred eggs ever since I first sampled them in a Paris brasserie years ago. But I didn’t know exactly how to make them until I came across the carefully instructive recipe in Julia Child’s masterful tome, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, where they were called oeufs sur le plat or oeufs miroir (in deference to their shimmering surface). Here’s my favorite version, which I invariably make when I have plucked the packet of giblets from the cavity of a chicken. It should always include a plump liver—the cook’s treat.

　　

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter (4, if using 2 eggs)

　　1 chicken liver, cut in half

　　1 small shallot or 1 scallion, chopped (or both, which I prefer)

　　A splash of dry sherry

　　1 or 2 large eggs

　　Salt and freshly ground pepper

　　

Step 1

Preheat the broiler. Melt the butter in a small heatproof gratin pan. When it is sizzling, toss in the chicken liver, sear for only a minute, then add the shallot and/or scallion and cook quickly, tossing, for another 1/2 minute. Splash in the sherry, let cook for a few seconds, until syrupy, then carefully break the egg right into the pan. Salt and pepper everything, and let cook over medium heat until the egg has just begun to set. Spoon the little bit of pan juice over the egg, and slip onto a rack about 6 inches under the broiler to finish cooking, just until the egg is set. Baste again, and eat from the gratin pan with some toasted bread to mop up the browned bits and juice.

　　

Other Possibilities

Step 2

Ham and sausage are also wonderful with shirred eggs, and you could do a vegetarian version with some onion and sweet pepper or some leftover ratatouille, if you have any.

　　The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved.Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.