Creamed Eggs on Toast

A one-paragraph recipe that assumes you already know how to make a white sauce. The only real decisions are its thickness and how gently you treat the egg slices once they are in the pan.

• What "rich white sauce" meansThe recipe does not specify proportions; a workable medium-to-thick white sauce is 3 tablespoons butter and 3 tablespoons flour cooked together, then 1 1/2 cups milk whisked in and simmered until it coats a spoon. "Rich" may indicate part cream or an extra spoonful of butter stirred in at the end, though the recipe does not say so.
• Season harder than feels rightHard-cooked egg and toast are both bland, and sauce tastes flatter once it is diluted by them. The instruction to season "highly" is meant literally, and the paprika is likely a mild one, used as much for colour as heat.
• Hard-cooking without the grey ringCover eggs with cold water, bring to a boil, cover and take off the heat for 10-12 minutes, then chill in cold water. The sulphurous green edge comes from overcooking, and it shows badly against a pale sauce.
• Handle the slices onceSlice the eggs directly into the finished sauce and fold gently, no more than a turn or two. Stirring breaks the yolks loose and turns the whole dish a uniform yellow-grey.
• Heat, do not simmerOnce the eggs are in, warm the pan over low heat just until steaming, about two minutes. Hard boiling tightens the whites to rubber.
• Quantities and yieldTwo and a half eggs per serving is generous by current habits; two per person is closer to a modern appetite. As written, 5 eggs would serve two; the recipe does not say how much toast per person.
• The toastUse a firm bread toasted dark and dry, and sauce it at the moment of serving. Soft sandwich bread collapses into paste within a minute of the sauce hitting it.