Bacon & Eggs

Steps

1. Prep2 min
   cold pan, no fat
   • bacon
   bacon laid flat in a single layer in a cold heavy skillet, strips touching but not overlapping — an overlap traps steam and that spot never crisps
2. Fry10 min
   medium-low, rising from cold
   bacon, turning every 2-3 min, until the fat has run clear and the meat is bronze at the edges. The cold start matters: fat needs to melt out before the muscle fibers seize, or the strips buckle into curls that cook unevenly and stay chewy in the middle. Move to paper towel — it firms as it cools, so pull it a shade lighter than you want
3. Prep2 min
   off heat
   • eggs
   • butter
   pour off drippings, leaving about 1 tbsp in the pan, + butter. Rest the pan off the burner for a minute first: drippings straight off bacon heat are well past 350°F, and eggs hitting that turn lacy and brown-frilled on the bottom before the white near the yolk has set
4. Fry3 min
   medium-low
   eggs slid in from a cup rather than cracked over the pan, so a broken yolk gets caught early and the whites land in tidy separate rounds. Cook until the whites are opaque at the rim and the pan stops hissing loudly — the noise is water leaving, and quiet means the bottom is done
5. Season1 min
   tilting the pan, spooning fat over
   • black pepper
   eggs basted with the hot fat until the film over the yolk clouds, + salt on the whites only + black pepper. Salt landing on a raw yolk draws water out through the membrane and leaves pale mottled pits by the time it reaches the plate
6. Top1 min
   warm plates
   • chives
   • hot sauce
   eggs + bacon alongside + toast + chives + hot sauce, plated immediately — eggs held on a plate keep cooking on their own residual heat and a soft yolk becomes a firm one in about three minutes