Scrambled Eggs

Method

1. whisk2 min
   off heat, cold pan
   eggs + salt, hard enough that no streaks of white remain — unmixed albumen sets firmer and faster than yolk, so any ribbon you leave behind shows up as a tough white fleck in a tender curd. Salting now rather than at the end is deliberate: salt disrupts the protein bonds slightly, so the network traps water instead of squeezing it out. If you have ten idle minutes, let the salted eggs stand; they will be measurably more tender.
2. cook1 min
   low heat
   butter in the skillet until it has melted and the foam has just subsided, but has not begun to color. Browned butter means the pan is already too hot for the eggs and the first spoonful will set on contact.
3. fold5 min
   low heat, constant motion
   + beaten eggs, dragging a spatula from the edge to the center every few seconds and scraping the base clean each pass. Egg protein coagulates from about 60°C; on low heat with constant motion the curds form small and stay suspended in unset egg, which is what reads as creamy. Stop stirring and you are making an omelette instead.
4. cook1 min
   off heat
   pull the pan off the burner while the eggs still look about a quarter too wet and glossy. The pan and the eggs themselves carry enough heat to finish them on the way to the plate, and eggs taken to fully set over the flame will keep tightening, then break and weep water. Fold in the cold cream here if using — it drops the temperature fast and stalls the coagulation.
5. top1 min
   = scrambled eggs + black pepper + chives. Pepper goes on at the end because its aromatics are volatile and scorch in the pan; salt went in at the start for the opposite reason.