Tips for poaching eggs? [Cooking]

2007 Feb 10
As everyone here is so knowledgeable, I am looking for people's tips on poaching eggs. I love poached eggs for breakfast, but I have not perfected the technique. I think I remember somewhere reading that you are supposed to add vinegar to the water to keep the egg white together... but how do you stop it from tasting of vinegar? Does anyone have any tips on not ending up with a plate full of water after lifting the eggs out? How do you cook them long enough that the white isn't runny, but the yolk is and not make the white too rubbery? Any input would be appreciated. It feels like a silly post, but maybe someone out there has the Zen of Egg Poaching!

2007 Feb 10
I've asked the same question many times and finally I ended up with this method as described here:

www.wikihow.com

Perfect eggs!

I'm going to make some now.

2007 Feb 10
Thank you! I think that my problem was not enough water (I was poaching in a skillet). They turned out brilliantly, the only problem was that I ran out of spinach for my stacked breakfast. I am so glad I asked what I considered was a silly question. Delicious.

2007 Feb 10
Gorgeous!

I'm really glad you went with step #12! lol

I wish I could, but no camera right now, and no one around to see!

I did mine with toast, and shredded moz, baby spinach sauteed in butter and garlic. So good.

Thanks for the photo!

2007 Feb 10
Tip not mentioned in that demo:

Before you plate your eggs have an end piece of a loaf of bread handy (you know, those pieces the kids won't eat that you end up throwing away) and
carefully lift your egg out of the water and on to the bread. Let the excess water soak into the piece of bread, then move it off there and on to the bread/english muffin/whatever on your plate that you intend to eat...no soggy english muffin.

2007 Feb 11
tnt,

I think our egg poaching episode brought out the addict in me. I ended up making them for a late dinner too! I used Mousseline's "bread heal" method to drain the water and it really did make a difference.

M: When you're not using those bread heals for poached eggs, freeze them for making crumbs or stuffing!

No more eggs for me today. I'm waiting for roomie to wake up so I can get started on ksw's Apple Pork Curry!! I know I said I was going to make it yesterday, but I got lazy. Today is the day. If it's pretty I'll take a photo. Can't wait!

2007 Feb 11
sorry to awaken the addiction - coming from an addict herself. We made them again this morning using Mousseline's bread tip - Thanks! Now the eggs don't taste of vinegar, have a nice consistency and don't have paper towel residue on them.
Good luck with the stew, sounds delicious.
Cheers!

2007 Feb 11
I'm glad that I'm not the only one out there who is a poached egg fanatic!! I do the same method as mentioned in the website mmmfood posted. I hate mine tasting like vinegar too so I just use like 1/2 a capful of vinegar and it really does do the trick for not having the egg whites all over the place.

I'm always plain jane with mine at home...on buttered toast with s&p....but wow! the spinach and cheese sounds awesome! Every single time we go out for breakfast, it's eggs florentine, or whatever veggie version the place offers!

Day off tomorrow, might have to have that for breakfast!

2007 Feb 12
Ok, talking about all these poached eggs, of course I had to make some this morning! Sorry the pic is a little blurry...I forgot to say my little trick with these beauties is right after I put in the eggs in the boiling vinegar water, I cover the pot, take it off the burner, and turn on the timer for 3 min. Perfection!

2007 Feb 25
Found this interesting article on poaching eggs. Nicely done, humourous and with photos:

www.b3ta.com

I still prefer the method I posted earlier on.




2007 Feb 25
Ha! That's a hilarious link. The recommended approach results in a poached egg that looks like it's been wrapped in plastic. ;-)

BTW, just this morning I tried the method you posted previously and it worked great! (And they also suggest using plastic wrap if the egg is separating too much for your liking.)

2007 Feb 25
Amazing how much discussion this results in. The bread heel tip was excellent, by the by -- thanks.

I used to have a perfectly rounded steel ladle that I'd grease lightly, break the egg into, lower into the barely-simmering water, and tilt as soon as things started to coagulate.

I've since lost the ladle, but. Worth trying if you have the right sort of metal one on hand.

The 'vortex' method on that page reminds me of a thing that was in the Ottawa Citizen a while back for eggs that were -- if memory serves -- inexplicably scrambled in water, for what sense that makes, and drained in a sieve. It was called 'easy,' and so drew some letters to the editor complaining. Understandably.

I'm almost reluctant to mention it given the likelihood of turning this into a scrambled discussion, but.

On that: Mr Breakfast has done his homework. www.mrbreakfast.com


2007 Feb 26
Yay! Thats how I do my scrambled and yes, it is the best! Sometimes I'll throw some shredded cheese on top at the end of the cooking process and cover to melt.

I made poached eggs yesterday as well, on English muffins with spinach and Hollandaise.

I cheated and used the Knor sauce mix in the envelope - not bad!!

2007 Feb 26
My 2 daughters both have the same favorite meal...eggs Benny (no ham for the older daughter) but I had a lot of cheddar to use up so I made poached eggs with cheese sauce. For breakfast yesterday AND dinner today (at younger daughter's request).

kmennie...your ladle trick works well, my ladle is a 2 oz one, exactly the size of a large egg, so placement was a little tricky. Also if I'm cooking more than 2 eggs in the same pot, I drop and unload counter-clockwise from the bottom right corner, to make sure the first egg in is the first one out and so on.

mmmfood...that package stuff is what a lot of the restaurants serve unfortunately. I was eating breakfast several years ago with my ex (who is a chef) and we were served eggs with large lumps of powder in the "hollandaise" . Yuck! Anyway, when Gord showed his plate to the server I made the mistake of saying "He's just being snotty because he's a chef." The server who I think was the owner's wife, actually took him by the arm back to the kitchen and had him show their cook how to make hollandaise sauce from a mix. No joke. And did I get the "look of doom" when he got back to the table.....