Skip to main content
Main

Eggs Au Beurre Noir

Eggs cooked in browned butter with vinegar, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,814 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs Au Beurre Noir

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the eggs

  1. Put one tablespoon butter in a hot chafing-dish.

  2. When the butter has melted, slip in four eggs carefully, one at a time.

  3. Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper.

  4. Cook the eggs until the whites are firm.

  5. Remove the eggs to a hot platter, taking care not to break the yolks.

Brown the butter and serve

  1. In the same dish, brown two tablespoons butter.

  2. Add vinegar to the browned butter.

  3. Pour the browned butter and vinegar over the eggs.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

189Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
2 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set to form the main body of the dish, with the whites firming while the yolks stay soft.
Butter
Cooks the eggs gently and, once browned, adds a nutty aroma and flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the rich, browned butter poured over the eggs.

The step that matters

Remove the eggs to a hot platter, taking care not to break the yolks.. Once the whites are set, the yolks are fragile and runny; rough handling breaks them and spoils the presentation and the runny centre.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes