Boiled Eggs, Hollandaise

A one-line assembly dish that depends entirely on two things: eggs cooked to the right point and a sauce that has not broken. Neither is spelled out here, so both are worth pinning down.

• Eight minutes is the hingeEight minutes in boiling water gives a set but still bright yolk, which is what you want under a rich sauce. Cooked longer, the yolks dry out and can develop the grey-green ring at the edge, and the quarters hold together less well when cut.
• Cooling and shellingMove the eggs straight into cold water for a minute or two before shelling, or the residual heat keeps cooking them. Very fresh eggs, which the recipe calls for, are notoriously hard to peel; eggs a week or so old shell far more cleanly.
• Cutting them neatlyWipe the knife between cuts and press only lightly. A thin blade dipped in water gives clean quarters rather than smeared yolk.
• Warm the dishHollandaise sets and dulls on contact with cold porcelain, and cold eggs under warm sauce is an unpleasant contrast. Warm both the serving dish and the shelled eggs briefly before saucing.
• Sauce quantityFor twelve eggs allow roughly a cup and a half of hollandaise, or about four egg yolks' worth. Less than that and the dish reads as plain hard-boiled eggs with a smear on top.
• Holding hollandaiseIt is best held well below the point where the yolks scramble -- somewhere under about 160F -- and it curdles outright if pushed much higher, while stiffening as it cools. Hold it in a bowl over warm, not simmering, water for as short a time as you can manage, and make it last so the eggs are not sitting while you whisk.
• YieldTwelve eggs serves six generously as a luncheon or supper dish, or more thinly if it is one of several dishes on the table. Halve the whole thing freely.
• FinishingThe original stops at the sauce. Chopped parsley, chives or a dusting of cayenne gives the dish the contrast it otherwise lacks, and buttered toast underneath catches the sauce.