German Eggs in Mustard Sauce: Senfeier

While this dish is a common one with Germans at any time of year, it is especially common in the days following Easter, as families have lots of boiled eggs on hand, and this is a good way to use them up. If you like mustard, this is a recipe for you. "Senf" is the standard German word for "mustard," a word that was borrowed by Old Germanic from Latin, which had borrowed it from Greek. "Seemingly," Old English once had "senap" from its Germanic parent, but it's not a well attested word.  

 

Frequently served with boiled potatoes as an accompaniment.

 

Ingredients:

 

6 eggs, hard boiled (or 8 minute eggs) 

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 large clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups half and half

2 tablespoons German hot (scharf) mustard 

1 heaping tablespoon grainy mustard (körniger Senf)

1/2 teaspoon salt 

 

Begin heating water in a pan large enough to hold the eggs and deep enough to hold water to cover the eggs by about an inch. (NOTE: In the U.S. especially, eggs are almost always refrigerated. So if you have refrigerated eggs, place them in a little WARM water, NOT hot, for a few minutes to essentially bring them to room temperature.) In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and add the finely chopped onion. Saute for about 2 minutes. If the butter begins to brown, lift the skillet from the heat and reduce the heat to low. Add the minced garlic and saute a further minute. Sprinkle the flour over the onion/garlic mixture and stir until it is mixed in to form a roux. If you turned the heat to low earlier, now return the heat to medium and gradually stir in the vegetable broth which should begin to thicken quickly. Now gradually stir in the half and half and continue stirring as the sauce thickens. Reduce the heat to low. Stir in the two types of mustard and the salt. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more half and half (or just milk), until you get a good consistency. When the water begins to boil, lower the room temperature eggs into the water one at a time (I use a large spoon ), and boil the eggs for 11 or 12 minutes for hard boiled, but I prefer 8 minutes for this recipe, which should leave a still moist looking yolk for the eggs. You must immediately plunge the eggs into cold water after 8 minutes to stop the cooking process. The German term for this cooked egg is "wachsweich," literally "wax soft" (the English relative of "weich" developed to be "weak," get it? Soft ... weak?). After the eggs have cooled a bit, peel them and cut them lengthwise. Spoon some of the mustard sauce onto a plate and then lay some of the egg halves on top. Serve with some boiled potatoes on the side of the plate.     

 

 

 "Senfeier," Eggs in Mustard Sauce with boiled potatoes and some arugula ...

WORD HISTORY:

Welt-This word for a raised and inflamed bump on the skin is related to "waltz," a word derived from Germanic that English borrowed from German, to "wallow," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is distantly related to the verb "vault" (leap over), a Latin-derived word borrowed via French (which had it from Italian), to the noun "vault" (arched roof), a word from Latin also borrowed via French, and to "revolve," another Latin-derived word borrowed from Latin, with French reinforcement, or the other way around. "Welt" goes back to Indo European "wel," which had the notion "to roll, to turn, to revolve." This gave Old Germanic "waltijanan," meaning, "to roll," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wyltan/wieltan," meaning "to roll," and this then became "welten," meaning "to roll over;" thus, "to twist, to wind (long 'i')," and the spelling and meaning were likely influenced by the related Old Norse form "velta," which meant "to roll over." By the early decades of the 1400s the noun "welt" had developed from the verb and meant "the twisted seam that joined parts of shoes that was similar to a ridge." By circa 1800, this ridge-like seam was applied to inflamed bumps on the skin that resembled such a ridge. While there are relatives of "welt" in other Germanic languages, from what I can tell, none has developed this meaning.