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Eggs au Beurre Noir
Prepare half a dozen eggs as if for poaching, by breaking each one separately into a cup. Brown 3 ounces of butter in a large frying-pan, and slide the eggs from the cups into it; when they have well set, ladle the burnt butter over them, and sprinkle salt and some nutmeg. Serve on toast wetted with vinegar. Time, from two and a half to three and a half minutes, according to size of eggs. Sufficient, two eggs for each person.
A French bistro egg dish that lives or dies on the butter: browned to the point of nuttiness and no further. Everything else is a matter of a hot pan and three minutes.
- The hinge: don't truly blacken the butterBeurre noir is browned butter, not burnt butter. Cook the butter over medium heat until the milk solids turn the colour of a hazelnut shell and it smells toasted; scorched butter turns bitter and acrid and cannot be rescued.
- 3 ounces of butterSix tablespoons, or about 85 g, for six eggs. That is a generous amount by design, as the butter is both cooking medium and sauce, but it means a wide pan of at least 10-12 inches so the eggs sit in one layer.
- They are fried, not poachedThe reference to poaching applies only to breaking each egg into a cup first, so it can be slid in whole and unbroken. No water is involved at any stage.
- TimingTwo and a half to three and a half minutes gives set whites and soft yolks. Basting with the hot butter, as directed, sets the tops without flipping.
- Vinegar toast"Wetted with vinegar" means a sprinkle, not a soak. A teaspoon or so of red wine or cider vinegar per slice; its sharpness is what balances the browned butter, and skipping it leaves the dish flat and greasy.
- NutmegGrate it fresh over the eggs at the table. Pre-ground nutmeg that has sat in a jar contributes little beyond dust.
- YieldSix eggs, three servings. The recipe scales badly upward in one pan; cook in batches rather than crowding, since eggs release water that stops the butter browning.
- A common additionClassic versions of beurre noir finish with a spoonful of drained capers, and sometimes a splash of the vinegar tipped into the hot pan rather than onto the toast.