The Perfect Poached Egg

 

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As any cook will have recognised, the simpler the method of cooking an egg, the less chance you have of getting it right.  The success of boiled eggs depends so critically on the size and age of the egg and the temperature and duration of the immersion, it’s a wonder they ever come out right.  Add to this the fact that you are cooking them blind, so to speak …

 

But the challenge of poached eggs runs a close second.  Indeed, a new variable is added – getting the shape right.  But at least you can see the things before they are brought to table, so any major disasters can be thrown away.

 

But fear not:  help is at hand.  I am prepared to share with you my foolproof method, developed over many years of painful experience.  So follow these steps for the perfect poached eggs on toast.

 

  1. Take a medium saucepan and just cover the bottom with vinegar.  Fill with water to the depth of a couple of inches, and bring to the boil.

 

  1. Break your egg or eggs, one at a time, into a small cup.

 

  1. Place your bread in the toaster.  (But don’t start toasting yet.)

 

  1. When the water boils – and not before! – slip the eggs one by one gently into the water, then immediately lift the pan and swirl it.  This action sets the eggs and prevents them sticking to the bottom.

 

  1. Return to the boil and then leave the eggs in the boiling water for 10 seconds before removing from the heat.  Make sure your straining spoon is handy.

 

  1. Switch on the toaster.

 

  1. Prepare your plate, knife and fork, and get out the butter.

 

  1. When the toast pops up, put it on the plate and butter it.

 

  1. Remove the eggs one at a time with your straining spoon, and place on the toast.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

  1. Take your knife in the right hand and break the yolk of the first egg … perfection!

 

 

Did I forget something?  Ah yes, how long does it take for the toast to pop up?  Well, this is where you’ll need to do some fine tuning of your own, by adjusting the toasting time so that you take out the egg when the white has gone firm but the yolk remains runny.  But using my equipment it is precisely two and a half minutes.  Or of course you could use a timer.

 

If you ask Google for the perfect poached egg, you will find many suggestions, some of them incorporating a good number of my tips above, but none, I would claim, with a methodology so simple and so guaranteed to produce the perfect result.  The key to it is to reduce as far as possible the effect of minor changes in the particular egg itself or in the cooking time on the end-product.  Hence my reliance for the greater part of the cooking on coddling the egg rather than boiling:  as the egg cooks, the water cools, and therefore variations in size and weight or indeed cooking time have progressively less effect.

 

The other key point is not to use a small saucepan:  it must be large enough to swirl the water round without spilling – this is vital to avoid sticking and to coagulate the egg into one entity.  When you remove it from the water, there should be no straggly residue.

 

Good luck with your poached eggs – you may need to practise a couple of times but after that – perfect poached eggs every time.  Persevere.  Please please don’t resort to the poaching pan.

 

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