Bacon & Eggs

Method

1. prep2 min
   cold pan, no fat
   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
   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
   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
   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