Eggs and egg sauces, flavouring profile

Eggs and egg sauces, flavouring profile

Egg yolk coats the palate and cooked egg gives off sulphur, so eggs want acid or bubbles, and the sauce they come in, and what it is spooned over, decides the rest.

The compounds that matter. Cooked egg white releases hydrogen sulphide, the faint sulphur smell of a boiled egg, and a wine that already smells of struck match tends to make it stronger. The yolk is fat bound with lecithin, which coats the tongue and dulls a soft wine. Mayonnaise, aioli, hollandaise and béarnaise add oil or butter, lemon or vinegar, and in aioli raw garlic, so the sauce often decides the wine more than the egg does.

What it demands of a wine. Acid to cut the yolk and the butter or oil, and to meet the lemon or vinegar. Bubbles help, since they lift the coating from the palate and carry off the sulphur. A clean wine rather than a reductive, struck match one. Little tannin, which the yolk makes chalky and metallic, unless the sauce sits on red meat.

Seek

With eggs on their own, poached, scrambled or in an omelette, a Crémant from Burgundy or the Loire, or English sparkling wine from Sussex, clears the yolk with acid and fine bubbles. With aioli beside fish, shellfish or vegetables, as in the Provençal grand aïoli, a pale Provence rosé has the acid, herbs and body to stand up to the garlic. With hollandaise over fish or asparagus, a dry Riesling from Alsace brings lime and firm acid that cut the butter and ride over the asparagus. With béarnaise on steak, Cabernet Franc from Chinon in the Loire meets the tarragon with its own herbal note, and its acid matches the vinegar in the sauce. With fried eggs and ham, or a Spanish tortilla, a Fino Sherry from Jerez has the salt and nutty depth to match.

Avoid

Tannic reds with eggs alone, which the yolk makes chalky and metallic. Wines with a strong struck match smell, which make the sulphur heavier. Heavily oaked whites with aioli or mayonnaise, since oak and raw garlic taste bitter together. Soft, low acid whites, which the yolk flattens.

Three to reach for. For eggs on their own, Crémant, France. For aioli with fish and vegetables, Provence rosé, pale, France. For béarnaise with steak, Cabernet Franc, Chinon, Loire, France.