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Fried Eggs with Brown Butter
Lightly butter six individual shirred-egg dishes. Break two fresh eggs into each dish; place them on the range and cook for three minutes. Remove them from the fire. Place one and a half tablespoons melted butter in a frying pan, set it on a brisk fire and fry to a light brown colour, then add one teaspoon good vinegar. Shuffle the pan slightly so that the butter and vinegar will be well mixed, pour it evenly over the eggs and serve.
A French bistro dish in miniature: soft eggs under browned butter sharpened with vinegar. The whole thing hinges on the butter, which goes from nut-brown to burnt in a matter of seconds.
- Shirred-egg dishesThese are shallow individual ceramic or metal dishes, usually only a few inches across, sold today as cocottes or small gratin dishes. Small cast-iron pans work; so does one larger skillet if you serve from it rather than plating.
- "Place them on the range"The dishes go directly over stovetop heat, which is why cast iron or heavy enamelled ware matters; the recipe does not specify how high. Thin modern porcelain can crack over a burner, so a moderate oven for a few minutes is a safer substitute.
- Three minutes is not longOver gentle heat that will leave the whites barely set and the yolks liquid. If the whites are still translucent, keep going rather than trusting the clock.
- Brisk fire, brown butterMedium-high heat in a light-coloured pan so you can see the colour. The butter foams, quiets, then the milk solids turn hazelnut brown and smell toasted; pull it off the heat at that moment, since the residual heat of the pan will carry it further.
- The vinegarThe recipe adds it straight to the hot pan, then shuffles the pan to combine; taking the pan off the heat first is a safer modern habit. Use a plain wine vinegar; a teaspoon across twelve eggs reads as a faint sharpness, not as a dressing.
- Quantity of butterA tablespoon and a half of browned butter divided among six dishes is a scant teaspoon each. Doubling it makes for a more generous sauce.
- Yield and servingSix servings of two eggs each, meant as a first course or light supper. Serve immediately in the cooking dishes with bread, since browned butter loses its aroma quickly and the eggs continue to firm up.
- Soft yolksThe yolks are set well below the temperature that would pasteurise them. Anyone who avoids lightly cooked eggs should skip this dish rather than overcook it.
This is oeufs au beurre noir, one of the fixed items of the nineteenth-century French repertoire, translated for an American audience. "Black butter" is an exaggeration: the butter is taken only to a light brown, and the splash of vinegar cuts the richness. The same butter-and-vinegar treatment was standard for skate and for brains, which suggests the sauce was understood as a general-purpose foil for bland, soft textures. The International Cook Book is generally credited to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and its brief, unfussy entries assume a cook who already knows what browned butter looks like, giving American households a plausible taste of the continental restaurant without a restaurant brigade behind it.