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Eggs au Beurre Noir
Butter Salt Pepper 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vinegar Put one tablespoon butter in a hot chafing dish; when melted, slip in carefully four eggs, one at a time. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook until whites are firm. Remove to a hot platter, care being taken not to break yolks. In same dish brown two tablespoons butter, add vinegar, and pour over eggs.
A French egg dish that lives or dies on the butter: beurre noir means the butter is taken past golden to a deep brown, then sharpened with vinegar off the heat.
- The hinge: browning the butterThe second two tablespoons must go past nut-brown to a dark, fragrant brown without turning black and acrid. Watch the milk solids on the pan bottom; pull it from the heat the moment they are the colour of strong tea, since butter goes from brown to burnt in seconds.
- Adding the vinegarThe recipe simply says to add the vinegar to the browned butter; adding it off the heat reduces spitting. A teaspoon is a deliberately small amount and gives a faint sharpness rather than a dressing.
- Chafing dishA chafing dish is a shallow pan over a spirit lamp or hot-water bath, used at table. A heavy 8-inch skillet over moderate heat does the same job, though you must control the flame more carefully than the original cook had to.
- Doneness"Until whites are firm" leaves the yolks soft, which is the point of the dish. Expect a few minutes over moderate heat; covering the pan briefly will set whites over the yolks that are still translucent, though the recipe does not call for it.
- Butter quantityOne tablespoon for frying, two more for the sauce, three total. Use unsalted if you have it, since the browning concentrates whatever salt is in the butter and the eggs are seasoned separately.
- YieldFour eggs serves two as a light entree, or one as a full plate. The recipe scales; brown the butter in one batch rather than repeating it.
- ServingWarm the platter properly. The sauce is a thin film of hot fat and it congeals and dulls on a cold plate almost immediately.