I used to have poached egg trauma before watching a guest on Martha Stewart show his method which is essentially this, What is left out here is the simple additional gesture of immediately rolling the egg over itself in the simmering water. This forms it into a ball and the rest is just letting it cook. For immediate service, I use a slotted spoon to remove each egg and blot it on a pad of paper towel. Since learning this hassle free method, poached eggs are a regular part of dinner as well as breakfast plates.
What is your favorite method or use for poached eggs?
While I will always order Eggs Benedict from a breakfast menu, it’s about the only time I have poached eggs. I just prefer a fried egg with a runny yolk for both flavor and texture.
I used to just boil them in water, but now I have taken to making them in the microwave. I put the egg in a little dish and set the machine to 50% power. You have to experiment on the cooking time: in my microwave, for a large egg at room temperature, it is 44 seconds for a 100% firm white and 100% runny yolk. I’m sure there are more exalted ways to make eggs, but at 7:45 AM before I leave the gym, this extremely fast method with zero cleanup works just fine.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot, cooking and eating in northwest England)
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Recently I mentioned on another thread that I’ve always had an issue with poaching. I’ve tried all the recommended tricks and I fail. On that thread soemone suggested buying a poaching machine. So I did and it works. Perfectly. OK, they come out looking a little odd - you break the eggs into a half moon shaped dish (2 eggs). But they are perfectly cooked. Question though - are they technically poached eggs as they’ve actually steamed. ?
I just slip them into barely swirled, hence extremely slow moving water that is slightly acidulated and just simmering. A poached egg on a buttered English muffin, topped with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of kosher salt is delicious. I have come to prefer this to eggs Benedict.
When I started using this method (having read about it in a magazine) I used a little water, like the article said. The challenge there was that the water always boiled and steam kind of exploded the egg a bit, flinging egg bits all over the microwave if I didn’t cover it. Then one day I forgot to put the water in, and whaddya know, my egg turned out just fine anyway. After that I just went with the egg.
Technically, they’re steamed (if they involve water beneath the halfmoon shaped indentations). My mother had such a pot, and she’d also add a little pat of butter before cracking the eggs in.
Maybe I have to give @small_h’s pods another shot. I owned a pair of silicone ones where the eggs used to stick. I’ve pretty much owned and tried all and every poaching technique and device, and I’ve come to believe that I am simply not meant to poach eggs at home. Wah.
