Monday, September 10, 2007

Eggs Drumkilbo

Today, September 10th ….

This week, the final week of my travel adventure, I will feature a few specific recipes that have intrigued myself, or one of yourselves, during the last (almost) two years.

Sometimes – almost always, when I think about it – researching a blog post throws more curiosities in my path than there were to start with. One of those was Eggs Drumkilbo – supposedly a favourite of the late Queen Mother. It was often served at luncheons, and also featured at the wedding breakfasts of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in 1973 and of Prince Andrew and Fergie in 1986. I understand that since the death of the Queen Mother, the royal kitchens have ceased serving Eggs Drumkilbo.

Drumkilbo is a famous and ancient estate in Perthshire, Scotland. I do not know if there is a connection between the stately home and the current members of the Royal family, or what is the connection with the egg recipe. If anyone does, do please let us know. The recipe pops up unacknowledged on various Internet sites, and in the Two Fat Ladies cookbook, but I have no idea who originated it.

Eggs Drumkilbo

1 lobster
225 gm (8 oz raw prawns)
8 good tomatoes
8 hardboiled eggs
fresh mayonnaise
a little tomato puree
anchovy essence
Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tab aspic powder
white wine or water.

Cook the lobster and prawns. When cooled and shelled, dice the flesh of both. Dip the tomatoes into boiling water for half a minute, then skin and deseed them. Dice the flesh and add to the lobster and prawns. Remove the whites from two of the eggs and discard and discard. Dice all the yolks and the rest of the whites, and add to the mixture. Mix all the ingredients with sufficient mayonnaise, flavoured with tomato puree, anchovy essence, Worcestershire and Tabasco to taste, to produce a good, fairly stiffish consistency. Check for seasoning.
Dissolve the aspic in a little boiling white wine or water, but do not let it actually boil. Stir into the mayonnaise mixture, making sure it is evenly distributed. Pour into a rinsed mould, or a pretty glass dish if you don’t want to unmould. Chill until well set.
Unmould or not, and serve as a first course with brown bread and butter or fingers of mustard and cress sandwiches.


Mustard and cress sandwiches, now there’s another topic …. See what I mean?

Tomorrow’s Story …

Parmesan Cheese Ice Cream.

Quotation for the Day …

Surely one advantage of traveling is that, while it removes much prejudice against foreigners and their customs, it intensifies tenfold one's appreciation of the good at home. Isabella L. Bird

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imagine living in a world in which a recipe involving a lobster (not to mention the prawns) is nonetheless an egg recipe...

Joanna said...

Drumkilbo is the next estate to Glamis Castle, the Queen Mother's childhood home. According to the Drumkilbo website, Lord Glamis leased the Drumkilbo estate for a while after 1900 ... that would have been the QM's father, I should think, but she'd certainly have remembered the two estates being joined. I've got a guidebook to Glamis which might throw some light on this, but I can't put my hand on it at the moment.

lel said...

Drumkilbo and the Queen Mum? Well, it's just down the road from the QM's childhood home at Glamis. One Lord Glamis (her brother?) rented it for a while in the early 20th century. Later the QM's sister Mary (Lady Elphinstone) lived there, I think. If only we knew who did the cooking.

lel said...

I hadn't seen Joanna's comment when I posted before, but we seem to be thinking on similar lines. Now for another clue: "...I received a letter from Lady Elphinstone who actually lives in Drumkilbo. She told me that her uncle's cook was the first perpetrator of this dish..."

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure when the Queen Mother died, but Ouefs Drumkilbo (what's with the French?) was served on HMY Britannia in 1991 - there's a menu on the site below (plus a few others too):

The Queen's Chef

I guess if you contact Robert Wood the site owner he might know when it was last served?

The Old Foodie said...

Hello John; thanks for this link. The French language of menus - Oh why did we hang onto it so long? Or why did the royals hang on to it so long?

Anonymous said...

On 18 November, 2007, Julian Williams, the Head Chef at Clarence House, produced Œufs Drumkilbo for a Dinner given by H. R. H. the Prince of Wales in honour of the Sixtieth Wedding Anniversary of H. M. The Queen and H. R. H. Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/newsandgallery/focus/trh_host_a_private_family_dinner_to_mark_the_diamond_wedding_935906863.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1569813/Charles-leads-Queen's-60th-anniversary-tribute.html

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine produced this as a starter for a lunch party yesterday and it is a complete show-stopper. He used multiple Quails eggs which made it easier to manage on the plate.

The Old Foodie said...

Wow Anonymous!it sounds fantastic done with w
Quail eggs!

Charles said...

There's a video on YouTube of one of the royal chefs making this:

http://youtu.be/TwBEnySUsYo

Unknown said...

Hello there, just come across this site and I know its some time since the original post but I can shed much light on the origin of the recipe for eggs drumkelbo. As has already been mentioned the Queen Mother's brother in law Lord Elphinstone once owned Drumkelbo house in Perthshire. The QM and family visited, on one of these visits the cook - one Gladys Davidson (a good friend of my family) - created eggs drumkelbo from leftovers. It became a firm favourite of the QM and indeed the royal family down through the generations. It has this day featured on a BBC TV programme - Royal Recipes. I hope this helps your research.