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Poached Eggs, Brown Butter
Prepare twelve poached eggs on toast and place on a dish. Place an ounce butter in a small frying pan, brown on the fire to a nice brown colour and remove from the fire; pour in a tablespoon of good vinegar and a teaspoon of finely chopped parsley, mix all well together, pour it over the eggs and serve.
A one-line French sauce written for a professional kitchen: the whole dish stands or falls on how far you take the butter.
- The hinge: how brown is brownCook the butter over medium heat until the milk solids turn nut-brown and it smells toasted, then pull the pan off the heat immediately — residual heat will carry it further. Black, acrid butter is not the goal, despite the classical name beurre noir.
- Add the vinegar off the fireThe instruction to remove the pan first is not optional. A tablespoon of vinegar hitting hot butter spatters violently and throws off sharp fumes; off the heat it simply hisses and emulsifies.
- Scale the butter upOne ounce (2 tablespoons) of butter for twelve eggs gives about half a teaspoon each, and a little is lost as water in the browning. If you want a more generous sauce, increase butter and vinegar together, keeping the recipe's own proportion of two parts butter to one part vinegar.
- Which vinegar"Good vinegar" in a book of this period most likely meant wine or cider vinegar. Sherry or red wine vinegar suits brown butter; distilled white vinegar is blunter, and balsamic is too sweet.
- Poaching, brieflyBarely simmering water with a splash of vinegar, 3 minutes for a set white and liquid yolk. Twelve eggs are best done in two batches and held in warm water, then drained on a towel so they do not water down the sauce.
- Timing at the tableBrown butter separates and dulls as it cools, so make it while the eggs sit in their holding water and pour it over at the last moment. Toast the bread last as well.
- YieldTwelve eggs serves six as a lunch or supper dish, or twelve as a first course. Salt and pepper are assumed and not mentioned.
This is the classic French pairing of poached eggs with brown butter sharpened by vinegar and lifted with parsley, a dressing also used with skate, brains and boiled beef tongue. The classical name beurre noir (black butter) implies a darker butter than modern taste generally favours, and the vinegar cuts what would otherwise be a heavy, scorched richness. Its appearance in The International Cook Book reflects how thoroughly French technique shaped the American professional repertoire in the early twentieth century.