Oeufs Caroline – Five Little Pigs

Hello crime readers and food lovers. In what is starting to become a bit of a trend, today’s post is dedicated to one of the main characters in Five Little Pigs, Caroline Crale.  To many fans, Five Little Pigs is the nec plus ultra of the Christie novels.  And it is an absolute cracker!  We never actually meet Caroline as she is sixteen years dead when the story begins.  But…what a character.  I absolutely loved her.  Her dignity, grace, loyalty, and fiery temperament made her a wonderful compelling and intriguing character. 

I also feel that all egg recipes are a little wink to Poirot and his egg-shaped head! 

I found the recipe for Oeufs Caroline in the French children’s cookbook called La Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants by Michel Oliver (1963).  It is a very cute book and I will definitely cook more from it but the timing on this recipe was completely wrong.   You have no idea how many times I ate Oeufs Caroline for lunch this week trying to get it right!

Five Little Pigs – The Plot

The accepted version of certain facts is not necessarily the true one.”

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

A young woman called Carla Lemarchant approaches Hercule Poirot with a very unusual case.  Sixteen years ago, her mother, Caroline Crale was found guilty of poisoning her father Amyas Crale.  However, before she died in prison, Caroline sent a letter to her daughter professing her innocence.  Carla wants Poirot to find out the truth.  Did her mother kill her father? Poirot focuses his investigation on the five people, apart from Carla and Caroline who were present on the day Amyas died.  For if Caroline is not guilty, then one of them is…

We have:

Philip Blake

• A stockbroker (went to market, geddit?) was one of Amyas’ closest friends.  On the day of Amyas’ death, he overhears an argument between Caroline and Amyas where Caroline threatens to kill him.  Philip is apparently no fan of Caroline and puts the murder down to “crude female jealousy.  However, does he have a secret desire to see Amyas dead?

Meredith Blake

• Philip’s brother.  Unlike his brother who is a successful broker, Meredith stayed home and dabbled in herbalism and other country pursuits.  It is some coniine from his laboratory that killed Amyas.  Unlike his brother, Meredith admits a fondness for and a loyalty to Caroline.  He argues with Amyas saying that the situation with Elsa was an “”unendurable insult” and not fair to either woman.  Might seeing the woman he cares for being mistreated have given him a motive for murder?

Elsa Greer (now Lady Dittisham)

• The little piggy who had roast beef. She was a rich, spoiled beautiful, young woman in love with Amyas.  It is her deliberate provocation of Caroline on the day of the murder that many people see as being the catalyst for later, lethal events.  Poirot…”saw her beautiful and rich, seductive to men, seeking with greedy predatory hands to fill up a life that was empty”.  She is still vitriolic about Caroline and says she would have preferred to see her hanged.

Cecilia Williams

• Angela Warren’s former governess.  She is a shrewd, fiercely loyal woman, living “close to the bone”.  She epitomises the one who has none.  She believes that Amyas got what was coming to him, her sympathies are entirely with Caroline.  But she also has proof, never previously disclosed that Caroline murdered Amyas

Angela Warren

• Caroline’s half-sister.  Caroline is overly protective of Angela after disfiguring her face in a fit of pique as a much younger woman.  Angela is spoiled and enjoys playing tricks on Amyas.  He wants to send her away to school.  She doesn’t want to go and this is causing some additional friction between Amyas and Caroline (as if there wasn’t enough already -the two are already, to quote Bonnie Tyler, “Living in a powderkeg and giving off sparks!).  

Amyas Crale

And finally, let’s talk about Amyas.  In my first few drafts of this, I didn’t include a description of him because I felt we all know this character.  That is not to say that he is badly drawn but because many of us have met this person in real life.  He is an Artist and everything and everyone around him comes second to his art…back in my uni days, I would have found him irresistible.  Now, the sheer arrogance and gall of this man would make me want to stab him in the neck. 

Amyas was…a ruthless egoist.  He loved Caroline but he never once considered her in any way.  He did as he pleased…he was as fond of her as he could be of anybody – but she came a long way behind his art

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

🤮

Well, just like Shaggy, it wasn’t me but it was someone.  And it will take all of Poirot’s little grey cells to figure this one out!

Five Little Pigs – The Covers

There’s nothing too crazy in the covers, lots of references to Amyas being an artist, and a few to the poisoned beer.  My favourites are the second row, second left for its pulp fiction feel and amazing font.  And I also really like third row first on the left with the artist and his brushes.

The Recipe – Ouefs Caroline

I have included here both the OG recipe from  Cuisine Est Un Jeu D’Enfants and my updated version.    

Oeufs Caroline

Print Recipe

A lovely breakfast or lunch dish, inspired by Agatha Christie’s Three Little Pigs

• Author: Taryn Nicole

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 tomato
• 1 egg
• 1 slice of bread (I used a potato and rosemary bread)
• 1 tbsp Creme Fraiche
• Chives or other herbs to garnish
• Butter, Salt Pepper

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Cut the top off the tomato and scoop out the insides with a spoon.
• Sprinkle the inside of the tomato with salt and turn upside down.  This will help to drain a lot of the tomato juice.  Otherwise, your eggs will be very watery.  Leave for 1/2 -1 hour.
• Heat your oven to 180C.
• Crack the egg and separate.  I found it easier to put the yolk into the tomato first and then top up with the white.  Don’t overfill.  You need some room to add the creme fraiche.
• Butter your bread and place the tomato on top of it.
• Place your egg-filled tomato and bread into the oven and cook for approximately 15 minutes for a soft egg and 25 minutes for a harder egg.  Check this as cooking time will depend on the size of your tomato.
• After 15-25 minutes add the creme fraiche to the egg, turn off the oven and turn on the grill.  Grill for an additional 5 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and garnish with herbs, salt and pepper.

Notes

I wanted to keep mine vegetarian but you could add a rasher or two of bacon when you place the tomatoes under the grill.

And Caroline Crale? Each person had seen her differently. Montague Depleach had despised her as a defeatist-a quitter. To young Fogg she had represented Romance. Edmunds saw her simply as a ‘lady’. Mr Jonathan had called her a stormy, turbulent creature. How would he, Hercule Poirot, have seen her? On the answer to that question depended, he felt, the success of his quest. So far, not one of the people he had seen had doubted that whatever else she was, Caroline Crale was also a murderess.”

Agatha Christie – Five Little Pigs

Links To The Christieverse

• Poirot brings a letter of introduction from Lady Mary Lytton-Gore with him when he meets Meredith Blake.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Five Little Pigs

• Butter
• Beer
• Coffee
• Sandwiches
• Plums, sour apples, hard pears
• Dandelion Tea
• Roast Beef
• Gin, Vermouth, Lemonade, Gingerbeer
• Fruit
• Fish

November’s read is The Moving Finger