Poached eggs

We have an electric one similar to this. Perfect every time 😊

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I think I'm quite a good cook but have never mastered poached eggs

I have tried all gimmicks over the years but now just break the egg over a simmering pan of water. No over thinking. Also, check out You Tube how to.

My late mum used to boil water in a pan, add a drop of malt vinegar, swirl the water and slide the eggs in. Perfect every time, looked impressive but I’ve never tried it!

I use paper poachies from the Co-op- not perfect but good enough. I love poached eggs!

My sister makes poached eggs frequently. I had tried all the different methods - egg poachers, making little whirlpools, adding vinegar. Never worked. What my sister does is this, and it always works:

Put a kettle on and bring to boil
Pour boiling water into a medium saucepan
Turn hot plate to medium - 6 on my hob
Break egg into small dish
Carefully pour egg into bubbling water
Set timer for 2 minutes
Remove egg with a slotted spoon and place carefully on kitchen paper to drain
Trim away scrabbly bits of white
Serve on hot buttered toast

I use Poachies after seeing them recommended on GN. Perfect poached eggs every time! I buy them by the 100 from Ebay.
Poachies

I cooked these yesterday for breakfast. I break the eggs into a small cup which is lowered into just simmering water. Very pleasing results. The fresher the egg the better though.

I use a silicone basket, lightly oiled. I use a tiny saucepan with an inch of boiling water and a lid. Cook until the white is set, carefully drain off any water that's collected round the egg. Mine are usually perfect.

I usually poach in water as others above. I do it two ways:

I poach the "correct" way if I want just one or two eggs, with gently spiralling water, one egg at a time and lifting out (when the white is set enough) with a slotted spoon.

If I want lots of them (say for the family for breakfast) I boil the kettle and use my old wide cast iron omelette pan with about 1½ inches of water in it. I wait till the water is boiling in the pan then switch the pan off. I gently slide in up to 5 eggs and then when they settled I pour in enough water from the kettle to just cover any yolk poking through. This "draws the veil" of white over the yolk and makes them look nicer when lifted out.
These lift out easily with a fish slice and it's easy to see when they are cooked enough.

The ones in a special pan/ contraption I think are really more like coddled eggs.
I still like them but they are a different beast as the water doesn't come into contact with the egg and so the white seems much firmer.
If I do ever use one of these I put a good dollop of butter in the egg holder and make sure it's fully coated and hot before the egg goes in. I start with the lid on and (maybe because I'm less confident with these), I look under the lid and once the top is a bit firm I take the lid off and treat the pan as a sort'of bain-marie.
I poke the white with a k ife when it looks done and usually the egg still has some runnyness in the yolk.
My mother-in-law always uses one of these pans and her egg yolks turn out solid most of the time - she leaves the lid on.
I do find this method harder to get right.

I’m a reasonable cook but poached eggs defeat me. My two daughters live with husbands who cook well. They learned basic spag bog, soup, veg sauce for pasta etc before going away to university and haven’t progressed much since, but, they can poach a perfect egg

Same for me - a decent cook but poached an egg? No way. I always indulge if staying in a hotel etc away from home.

Poach not poached*

Thank you for all your comments and advice. I will keep practising a bit longer😂

The trouble with poached eggs really are that they are best poached as soon as possible after they are laid😊.

The white stays firmly around the yolk to give a very pleasing result.

That is done the proper way in a pan of water.

Marmin

I cooked these yesterday for breakfast. I break the eggs into a small cup which is lowered into just simmering water. Very pleasing results. The fresher the egg the better though.

This is the truth! The water should be just bubbling and no more.

Like many others here I do consider myself a reasonable cook but poached eggs are touch and go. I'll try some of the methods described above.

My mother had one of those pans which you filled with water and put four little cups in a sort of trivet over the boiling water and covered with the lid. We called them poached eggs but I suppose they were steamed eggs really. The little cups were only cheap aluminium but with a little pat of butter in the bottom the eggs slipped out perfectly.

So much depends on the egg. Should be as fresh as possible. I recently saw a YouTube video where they put the egg in a strainer first and strained off the less firm, watery part of the white. If you are poaching it in water without any form of container this gives you an egg with no straggly bits.

I haven't tried this yet.

I have also seen it done like this:

Line a small bowl with cling film.
Break the egg into the bowl
Gather up the cling film into a little parcel
Drop into the boiling water.

Haven't tried that either. Looks like we're going to have a few poached eggs over the next weeks to find out which method works best for me!

The timing will depend on the size of the egg, its temperature and your preference.

Here's a helpful video which explains the science involved

youtu.be/MhDKY9k0CoU?si=zYrAoxtXdb-aalDR

I’ve seen them cooked in glad wrap ( cling film ) successfully and well but I haven’t tried it myself. The swirling water and vinegar is good but I usually just use the poacher, easy peasy.

I shall be following these tips closely. I love a poached egg sometimes on toast, sometimes with crinkle cut chips and a spoon of garden peas. 😋

Marmins method is also mine with the addition of little vinegar and whisk the water before adding eggs.

Gently simmering water and a slug of vinegar. White wine vinegar or malt.

The paper poachies and the cling film method both work well. Once simmering I set the timer on my phone for 3 or 3 1/2 minutes.

I have tried most of the methods for cooking poached eggs, as we eat them twice a week, but have settled on silicone cups.

I put the cups with the eggs into simmering water and the main thing that ensures consistency is the glass lid on the pan.

I can see when they are nearly done and it is surprising how they vary in time.