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Eggs in Brown Butter
Cook six eggs in one tablespoon of butter until the whites are set, season with salt and pepper and place on a platter. Then brown two tablespoons of butter in the pan, add one teaspoon of vinegar and pour over the eggs.
A fried-egg dish that lives or dies on the butter: two tablespoons browned properly, then sharpened with vinegar off the heat. Six eggs in one tablespoon of butter assumes a well-seasoned iron pan.
- The hinge is the butterBrown the second batch of butter until the milk solids are nut-coloured and the foam subsides, roughly two to three minutes over medium heat, then get it off the burner. A few seconds too long and it turns black and acrid rather than nutty.
- Add the vinegar off the heatButter at browning temperature is well above the boiling point of vinegar, so it will spit hard. Pull the pan aside, add the teaspoon, swirl, and pour immediately.
- Which vinegarThe recipe says only "vinegar" and does not specify a type. Any sharp vinegar around 5 percent acidity works; balsamic is too sweet and too dark for the effect intended.
- Eggs "until the whites are set"That means about three minutes over gentle heat, whites opaque and yolks still liquid. Covering the pan for the last minute sets the film over the yolks without overcooking them.
- Pan choiceOne tablespoon of butter for six eggs is sparing, and works best in cast iron or a good nonstick pan; in stainless you will likely need more fat or the whites will tear when lifted.
- Butter quantityTwo tablespoons of browning butter for six eggs is modest. Butter loses water as it browns, so three tablespoons gives enough sauce to reach every egg.
- YieldThree servings as a main at breakfast or supper, six if the eggs are part of a larger table. Serve at once; browned butter congeals quickly on a cool platter.
This is the domestic English-language version of oeufs au beurre noir, a French preparation that appears in nineteenth-century cookery under the name "black butter" — a slight exaggeration, since the butter is meant to be brown rather than burnt. The vinegar finish is the same trick used for skate au beurre noir, where acid cuts the richness of the fat and keeps the dish from sitting heavy. A dish that turns six eggs and some butter into something with a sauce is a small economy of the kind that simplified French technique made available to households cooking without professional staff.