French · Authentic-ish French
Oeufs en Meurette
416 kcal a serving, against 664 for the traditional version. That is 248 kcal off, or 37%, with 22.3g of protein. Serves 4. 45 minutes.
What the traditional version is
A rich, velvety sauce made by boiling down red wine and beef stock, thickened with a heavy paste of butter and plain flour. Generous handfuls of fatty pork lardons are fried until crisp. The eggs are poached directly in the wine reduction, and the whole lot is poured over thick slices of white baguette that have been heavily fried in even more butter.
What changed, and what each change costs
100g of butter down to absolutely zero
The classic method insists you thicken the sauce with a butter and flour paste, then fry the bread in whatever butter is left. I use cornflour to thicken the sauce and toast the bread dry instead.
What it costs you. You lose the glossy, buttery finish on the sauce. The dry toast is also a bit rougher on the roof of your mouth than a slice of fried bread.
200g of lardons down to 50g
Pork belly is mostly fat. A small amount still flavours the whole pan with that essential background smoke, but dumping 200g into the sauce is entirely unnecessary.
What it costs you. You get far fewer chewy, salty little bits of pork to fight over at the table.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 664 | 416 |
| Protein | 30.3g | 22.3g |
| Fat | 34.4g | 11.5g |
| Saturated fat | 17.3g | 3.7g |
| Carbohydrate | 35.9g | 32.5g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 4.6g | 5.4g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish French prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. eggs, gluten, sulphites, celery.
The method is in the book
A deeply savoury plate of food that hits all the right notes, then. Not a thin, watery compromise, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The wine reduction brings a massive punch of flavour without leaving you feeling entirely weighed down by dairy fat. The sauce is dark, sharp and brilliant, and the egg yolks bleed into it perfectly. I actually prefer eating it this way.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish French, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback