What is the best trick for poached eggs?

Use vinegar Poaching an egg in a little vinegar helps the egg maintain its form while poaching. The vinegar helps the egg whites cook faster, allowing the egg to better stay together. Just adding about a Tablespoon of vinegar to your water can make all the difference.

Do I need vinegar to poach an egg?

It's completely optional and not even necessary , but if you do want to try it, stir one tablespoon of distilled white vinegar into the boiling water before you add the eggs. Can you poach more than one egg at a time? If you're hosting a brunch party, you may want to poach more than one egg at time—and you can!

How do you poach an egg in a saucepan?

Break cold egg into small dish or saucer. Holding dish just above simmering water, gently slip egg into water. Repeat for remaining eggs. Cook in barely simmering water until white is set and yolk is cooked as desired, 3 to 5 minutes.

How do restaurants make perfectly round poached eggs?

The most common way to poach an egg is by creating a vortex in the water . You achieve this by stirring the water with a spoon in a vigorous circle once it is lightly simmering. All you do at this point is drop in the egg and wait for it to cook.

What are 3 ways to poach an egg?

We have three of the easiest techniques: the whirlpool method, the frypan method, and the oven method for perfectly runny yolks and tender whites every time. Set yourself up for success with the right eggs. What type of egg is good for poaching?

How many minutes for poached eggs?

A really soft poached egg should take around 2 minutes and a soft-to-firm one will need 4 minutes (it depends on the size of the egg and whether you're using it straight from the fridge). To check if it's done, carefully remove your egg from the pan with a slotted spoon and give it a gentle prod with a teaspoon.

Should water be boiling for poached eggs?

The water should not be boiling, but more than simmering so that the movement in the water can be seen.

Why do chefs put vinegar in poached eggs?

The other way is to increase the acidity of how you're cooking it . "Vinegar is an inherently acidic material, so if we add a few drops of vinegar into that boiling water that is going to increase the rate of denaturing and it's going to make that happen faster and help the poached egg hold its shape better."

How much vinegar do you use to poach eggs?

Add one tablespoon of light-colored vinegar to the pot and stir to create a vortex. Pour the ramekin with the egg into the middle of the vortex and set a timer for 3 minutes. Once the egg is done, use a slotted spoon to remove the poached egg. Dab with a paper towel to remove excess water and eat immediately.

How do you poach an egg without it falling apart?

Poach eggs cold, not at room temperature Cold eggs are more viscous, meaning they're thicker and stickier, so they'll be better able to hold together when you begin cooking them. Room-temp or slightly warm eggs will be more prone to falling apart.

Why add vinegar to poaching liquid for poached eggs?

"Vinegar is an inherently acidic material, so if we add a few drops of vinegar into that boiling water that is going to increase the rate of denaturing and it's going to make that happen faster and help the poached egg hold its shape better ."

Easy Poached Eggs Recipe (2024)

Why It Works

Straining eggs in a fine-mesh strainer removes excess wispy, loose whites, creating tight, perfectly-shaped eggs.
Poaching at a 180°F (82°C) sub-simmer means fewer disturbances in the water, and cleaner, more tender cooking.

Wouldn't it be great if there were a poached egg method that works every time, and better yet, allows you to poach your eggs in advance, ready to be served at moment's notice?

I've wanted to write about poached eggs for a while. Egg-poaching is a technique that looms large in my legend, as it would for anyone who's had to cook several hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of them in various restaurants. See, even after years of practice, my success rate hovered at maybe around 75%.

Every time I dropped an egg in the pan, I'd make sure to drop a second, knowing that at least half the time, one of them would break or come out looking like a wispy ghost, its wet white tentacles threatening to spread over your toasted English muffin or shrouding yourfrisée aux lardonssalad. That's the last thing I'd wish on any diner paying over the odds for a perfect salad.

It wasn't until I discovered this technique, which you'll see in the video—something I first heard from insane British chefHeston Blumenthal—that my success rate suddenly soared to, well, pretty much 100%, where it's stayed ever since. The method was actually first mentioned inThe Curious Cook, Harold McGee's second book. Strange, because I'd read the book countless times, yet somehow this one trick never stuck with me. Hopefully it'll stick better with you.

The trick is easy, requires nothing more than a fine-mesh strainer,and unlike every other poached egg trick out there, this onereallyreally works.

First, get yourself some really fresh eggs. Fresh eggs have tighter whites and yolks that help them retain their shape better as they cook.

There are two ways to tell how fresh an egg is. The first is to check something called the Julian date. As long as it's packed in the US, every carton of eggs has a number between 000 and 365 on it. And that number corresponds to the day on which the egg was cleaned and packaged. So a number of 000 would mean January 1st, 003 would be January 4th, and so on. All you really need to know is that the higher that number, the fresher the egg.

You can also tell how fresh an egg is by carefully putting it into a cup of water. As an egg ages, the air pocket in the fat end is going to get bigger and bigger, which will make the egg stand upright or sometimes even float. A really fresh egg will sink and lie flat on its back.

Once you've got your fresh egg, the second tool you need is something I saw first suggested by British chef Heston Blumenthal: a fine-mesh strainer.

April 2014

Recipe Details