Poached eggs advice!

Fresh eggs, boiled water turned off, egg cracked into a saucer then carefully slid in, lid on.
Check that the white is cooked approx 3 minutes. Lift out using a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper or tea towel to dry.
 
The cling film method is the absolute winner. If you're cooking one or two eggs then you can skip it, but for a large number it's the only way to really get all the eggs evenly cooked. You can even let some water into the cling film if you're really pedantic!
 
There is no secret, fresh eggs, I prefer chilled eggs when poaching as opposed to room temperature but it's all about the freshness.

You don't need any special tricks, I've done 300 a day in the past. Fresh egg, boiling water, vinegar and whatever cooking time is up to you on preferred outcome of yolk.
 
Crack each egg into ramekins or small low dish. When water is just before boiling point, lower the ramekin in at an angle to allow a bit of water in and hold it for a few seconds. Then tip it out - the white will have hardened a bit keeping shape. But main thing is fresh eggs.
 
It's not just fresh eggs, it's the quality too. A fresh cheap and nasty supermarket egg is usually worse than an old decent egg.

hood1971 said:
Crack each egg into ramekins or small low dish. When water is just before boiling point, lower the ramekin in at an angle to allow a bit of water in and hold it for a few seconds. Then tip it out - the white will have hardened a bit keeping shape. But main thing is fresh eggs.
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That's what I do, other than I swirl the water a little.
 
I tried a few methods last month when this thread was active, all were perfectly ok.

This morning I got a dozen fresh free range eggs straight from the farm, so I decided to poach a couple for lunch.
On this occasion I used the microwave :eek:

I boiled some water in the kettle, put some the boiled water in to a pyrex bowl. Drop of vinegar and cracked the egg in. 60 seconds in the microwave and then eat.

They came out very well, perfectly formed and cooked. Go on, try the method, you may be surprised. ;)
 
I've had such markedly better egg poaching results since we started keeping our own chickens. The eggs we poach now are at most two or three days old, and the whites hold together in a way I've never managed to achieve with supermarket eggs. Tiny splash of vinegar (from habit, not even sure if I need this anymore) and crack them striaght into a pan of simmering water with a slight swirl set off by a wooden spoon, and the results are consistently great. Previously I always got the thinned out, messy whites, so I'm definitely in the "freshness is key" camp!
 
i struggle to believe vinegar does anything other than change taste, compared to the heat of the water I would bet its a myth, like salting a steak just before cooking drys it out, compared to a several hundred degree pan, it does nothing.
 
Vinegar and very fresh eggs.. then move the poached to a simmering clean pan for 1 min.. in hotels/restaurants they have a massive waterbath next to the pans just for this.. the vinegar makes the egg bind, the waterbath washes the taste..
 
Glaucus said:
i struggle to believe vinegar does anything other than change taste, compared to the heat of the water I would bet its a myth, like salting a steak just before cooking drys it out, compared to a several hundred degree pan, it does nothing.
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Quite likely. While an acid will react with the alkali albumen i doubt the amount of vinegar people add to the pan of water would have any real impact without adding a lot of taste.

Fresh egss is important as the structure of the egg slowly breaks down and some of the films and protein layers used to hold the yolk together weaken.The egg white is much stiffer in a very fresh egg and goes much more liquid over time.
 
Vinegar does nothing unless you're adding so much of it that you pickle the egg as you poach it - fresh eggs or eggs with as much of the loose white removed are the key to successful poaching.
 
Right. As OCUK's only professional chef. I will chime in.

Small pan, water just simmering, little salt, little white wine vinegar.

crack egg into the side of pan and leave the damn thing alone.

take out after 2-3 minutes depending upon how hard you wish the yolk to be.

Use a slotted egg lifter (like a bent fish slice) to get the egg out, allow water to run off.

Eat!
 
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