Salt, heat, and the first good egg

A first good egg is not a triumph. It is a temperature you can feel through the handle.

This note is for a Saturday when the market bags are still on the chair and nobody has asked for anything more complicated than breakfast. The skillet should already be yours. If it is not, cook three eggs in it this week and it will start to remember you.

The pan

Set a heavy pan over medium heat and wait longer than you think. A drop of water should skitter, not scream. Add a knob of butter and tilt until the foam smells like toasted cream, not like a cinema.

The egg

Crack into a cup, then into the butter. Salt at the rim, not the yolk. Leave it. The white will set from the edge inward. If you fuss, you get lace. If you wait, you get a collar.

When to stop

Slide it out when the white is opaque and the yolk still moves like a thought you have not finished. Eat it standing up if you must. Write down the heat setting that worked in this room, on this hob, with this pan. That sentence is the recipe.