The perfect poached egg

TheFool

TheFool

TheFool

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It's getting to the point where I might as well not even try and get to sleep and start thinking about what to have for breakfast. :rolleyes:

So I'm thinking I fancy a poached egg, trouble is, every time I try and make one it goes horribly wrong :confused:

So I need some advise, how should I cook a perfect poached egg (or at least an edible one)? :p
 
Don't you boil some water, add some vinegar then swirl the water around quickly and crack the egg into it. Keep swirling for X minutes and presto
 
The key is the water temperature really. You want to make sure you've got a decent simmer going on so there's enough temperature to firm it up before it spreads out over the water.

A splash of white wine vinger also helps, and the fresher the eggs the better.

If you're pro then you can use a deepish pan and get a decent whirlpool going on. It can be a bit of a ballache if you're trying to do multiple eggs in one pan though, so I tend to use a deep frying pan and keep the water as still as possible.
 
crack egg into a cup or glass
put water into a small pot
heat water up to the stage were bubbles are just starting to form
add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water
now use the spoon to stir the water, it here you will need to practice, you need the water spinning fast enough to hold the egg together but not too fast
pour the egg from the cup/glass into the middle of the spinning water and cook to your liking (hard or soft)
 
I find that stirring it actually produces an inferior egg if you want to poach more than one at a time.

Add vinegar + salt to water
Bring to a furious boil
Crack your eggs in, being sure to try and get it to 'fall out' in one big blob
Turn down the heat to medium once all eggs are in
Cook for 3 mins for runny yolk, 4 mins for 'firm' or 5 mins for cooked through.

After 3 mins you should have some lovely poached eggs. If you leave the eggs at room temp they turn out better as they don't drop the temp of the water so much.
 
IMO the most important thing is the freshness of the egg.
You can try anything you like, but if the egg isn't really fresh it will inevitably spread out far too much and turn into a pretty mediocre poached egg.
 
as well as gentle swirl and vinegar in the pan methods discussed, try dipping the egg in its shell for about 5-10 seconds into the boiling water. This starts to firm the proteins and it will tend to hold its shape better when you crack it into the pan. Another trick is to crack it into a ramekin 1st as its easier to pour from that than cracking and pouring direct. As has already said though freshness of eggs is very important too
 
Perfect poached eggs are the bane of my life. From reading the above, where I've been going wrong is not using very fresh eggs.

I've tried:

- Cling film method (somehow ended up messy, not sure I read up about how best to do it).

- One of these (the pan is good):

7ywP4.jpg

- Silicone egg poachers:

nxV0k.jpg

- Swirly water with vinegar method.

Even the poaching pan seems to go wrong, as it seems to take ages to cook the inner white, meanwhile the outside is too hard.

The best and most consistent method so far has been silicone poachpods.

One thing I must try, which sounds amazing, is eggs 'Arzak', which involves infusing the egg with duck fat and truffle oil!!

http://egullet.org/p1183525 said:
This is how I learned to do the Arzak eggs from another Basque chef, Carlos Posada of the Madrid Restaurant Amparo,who learned it from the master.

He lines a small ramekin with a 10-inch sheet of plastic wrap, then drops in a bit of truffle oil or duck fat and some salt and pepper. He cracks a large egg into the lined ramekin and pulls up the wrap around the egg so that the white encloses the yolk. After removing as much air as possible, he fastens it shut with a plasic tie, creating a hobo- shaped package. The egg can be refrigerated for a short while.

When all the eggs are ready to be poached, he simmers them for 7 minutes, after which he drops them into ice water to firm them up. The packages can be kept for a few hours in the icy water..

When he needs to serve the dish, he reheats the egg for an instant in hot water, removes the plastic wrap, and sets the egg on whatever else is on the plate.
Click to expand...
 
Robbie G said:
- One of these (the pan is good):

http://i.imgur.com/7ywP4.jpgIMG]

- Silicone egg poachers:

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/nxV0k.jpgIMG]

- Swirly water with vinegar method.

Even the poaching pan seems to go wrong, as it seems to take ages to cook the inner white, meanwhile the outside is too hard.

The best and most consistent method so far has been silicone poachpods.
[/QUOTE]

Poach pods and poaching pans both result in steamed eggs and not poached eggs which give you an overcooked white. They are nothing on poached eggs.

The way I do it is not to swirl the water (swirling is a big mistake imo) and to add some vinegar (half the time I don't have it do it's not the end of the world without) and to do it in a deep-ish frying pan full of water which is boiling fairly hard. I get some fairly good results.
Click to expand...
 
Streeteh said:
I find that stirring it actually produces an inferior egg if you want to poach more than one at a time.

Add vinegar + salt to water
Bring to a furious boil
Crack your eggs in, being sure to try and get it to 'fall out' in one big blob
Turn down the heat to medium once all eggs are in
Cook for 3 mins for runny yolk, 4 mins for 'firm' or 5 mins for cooked through.

After 3 mins you should have some lovely poached eggs. If you leave the eggs at room temp they turn out better as they don't drop the temp of the water so much.
Click to expand...

Pretty much that - normally do poached egg on crumpet for 4 people and never go wrong with basic method. Wirlpool is fine for one egg, but not for 8 at a time.
 
I don't think there's any secret to perfect poached eggs. You can get fantastic results from poaching in a tall pan or a shallow pan, with boiling water or simmering water, by stirring the water or leaving it still, using malt vinegar or white wine vinegar, by keeping the eggs chilled or at room temperature, etc etc.

But the one guarantee of success is the freshest eggs and plenty of practice. There's something almost magical about poaching a properly fresh egg by just gently cracking it into a simmering pan of water and watching it slowly sink to the bottom as a perfect little whitening bag.

I think where most problems come from are people using eggs which are past their best and struggling to contain all the watery stuff into a perfectly poached egg. That's when you get all the swirling water and overuse of vinegar, which never seems to end well.

That being said, this is a very decent technique to follow and is a cracking recipe to boot.

Does anyone else store their poached eggs in the fridge for use the following day/days? Great little tip that - poach them until they are just done and dunk them straight into some iced water. Then all you need to do is refresh them in a pan of simmering water and you get your perfectly poached egg without all the washing-up.

Certainly helps when you're doing twenty portions of Eggs Benedict...
 
What great coincidence, I had poached eggs this morning. :)
I just cracked a few eggs into boiling water, waited a few minutes, took it out, seasoned and ate. Don't see how you can mess it up really.
 
Fresh eggs do really help, i just couldn't get on with the swirling method as it really does limit the amount of eggs you can produce at win level.

I get the water to a boil then turn it down to very low, so there are very little or no bubbles. Then crack and drop the eggs in from the minimum height possible without scolding your fingers. This is important!

Also if you put the whole egg in boiling water for about 15-20 seconds before reducing the heat it helps the egg stay together when you crack/drop it into the water.

From experience i keep the water just below simmering level and cook for a few minutes.
 
got one of these

viners20cm4cupeggpoache.gif


produces gorgeous eggs very easily and with so little mess/washing up :D

But they don't look as cool as swirly water ones.
 
I have also never successfully poached an egg in water. I either get stringy egg soup or vinegary stringy egg soup. I've tried everything, I'm just crap. I therefore bow to the skillZ of anyone who can poach eggs :D

I always use an egg poaching pan, however...
Robbie G said:
Even the poaching pan seems to go wrong, as it seems to take ages to cook the inner white, meanwhile the outside is too hard.
Click to expand...
...in my experience, this happens when the egg poacher has plastic cups. If you get one with metal cups (which is becoming increasingly rare :(), the egg cooks more consistently :)
 
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I always just go with:

Bring water up to the boil
Crack egg into glass
Turn off heat, so water is still
Pour egg into pan and let "set" for a few seconds
Then bring water back to boil and cook as you see fit.

Seems to work fine. Had previously tried a few things like swirling and those silicon cups, but neither worked well.
 
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