Hop Sprouts (Jets de Houblon)

Jets de houblon (hop sprouts) teach that tenderness is selected before it is cooked. Each shoot has one natural breaking point; snap there and the finished mound is delicate, miss it and no sauce can civilize the string. That is the one true thing to know before you touch the pan.

The original service assumed a vegetable cook at the boiling pot, poached eggs ready from another station, and croûtons arriving hot from a butter pan. At home, fry the croûtons first, poach and hold the eggs, then cook the shoots last in the same saucepan. Separate hands were brigade scaffolding; the lemon-salted water, real butter, eggs, and comb-shaped croûtons are the dish and must stay. Four eggs, four croûtons, one modest platter. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Properly cooked jets de houblon keep their pale green or ivory colour, bend without collapsing, and carry a clean spring bitterness under the butter and soft egg yolk. Let the clock advise you, then bite a shoot. Before any water boils, snap every stem by hand and trust where it gives.