Eggs en Cocotte with Gravy

Œufs en cocotte au jus (eggs poached in little pots with veal gravy) teach the one true thing about eggs: stop the cooking while they still look a breath underdone. The hot porcelain and bain-marie keep working after the oven door opens, so fully set whites in the oven mean firm yolks at the table.

The original line assumed a saucier on staff, a stockpot never off the fire, and rows of small cocottes watched to the second. A home kitchen needs four 6-ounce ramekins, a roasting tin for the bain-marie, and 1/4 cup of finished reduced veal gravy from a trusted butcher or your freezer. No salamander is used because nothing is gratinéed. Making a stockpot for four spoonfuls is brigade scaffolding and goes, but buttering each pot, poaching gently, and adding the gravy only at service are the dish and stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

When it is right, the whites are tender and barely quivering, the yolks flow under a spoon, and the veal gravy sits as a narrow mahogany ring, enough to deepen the egg without smothering it. Pull the cocottes when a faint translucent veil still clings beside the yolks. That is the step that decides everything.