The Perfect Poached Egg

Image by Brown Eyed Baker

Are you an egg lover? Is an egg something you enjoy once, twice or even three times a week?

The egg is an interesting food, it really covers a lot ground. Served on it’s own it can be fried, scrambled, made into an omelet, soft boiled, hard boiled, pickled or my favourite…. poached.

The egg is also used in so many other dishes it can be used whole or broken down into the white and yolk and used for totally different purposes. All parts of the egg can be eaten, however the shell is usually discarded.

My quest for the perfect poached egg started long ago. I’m sure I have frustrated many a wait staff with my request whilst ordering the poached egg I desired. On occasion, in some of the finer restaurants, I have been successful and have enjoyed an amazing, gastronomical treat. On other occasions I have been extremely disappointed when served a less than perfect poach.

I finally decided it was time for me to take matters into my own hands. I needed to conquer this cooking style and develop my own ‘Perfect Poached Egg’.

After many Google searches, reading cooking websites all in an effort to understand this inexpensive super food that is so rich with nutritional value it was time to put my research and taste-buds to work.

I pulled out a medium sized pot, grabbed a carton of eggs from the fridge and three eggs, from the counter, that I had let come to room temperature. I filled the pot with water, brought it to a boil and the fun began.

After a few failed attempts I persevered and finally created the ‘Perfect Poached Egg’. I have since shared the experience with my husband, my children and I even taught my own mother how to make this culinary treat.

I am now ready and willing to cook a poached egg for any palate, whether you like your poached egg {like mine} whites all cooked but yolk super runny or like my husband yolk slightly firm I am pleased to say Bon Appetite.

The Perfect Poached Egg

- Bring a medium size pot of water to a full boil
- Add 2 tsp of white vinegar
- Using a long skinny dessert spoon begin stirring the boiling water counter clockwise {you want a strong stir happening}
- Using a refrigerated egg, crack egg into a shallow bowl {a ramekin would be perfect}
- Once your water is swirling pour your egg, slowly and carefully into the water.
- Once the egg is in, keep stirring the water. Don’t worry if the egg looks like the whites are separating, keep stirring.
{Note: if your yolk breaks whilst pouring it into the water. stop and start over….. it isn’t working}
- Keep the water swirling but as you can see the egg forming you can slow down but do NOT let the water stop moving the egg could stick to the bottom on the pan which would cause it to break.
- Using a large strainer spoon pull out some of the excess whites that are floating in the water.
- Cooking time is about 2 minutes for runny and 2.5mins for harder yolks. Using your strainer spoon you can carefully bring the egg to the surface to check doneness. If the poaching is not to your liking simply place it back in the water for a further 15-20 seconds.

Once ready use your strainer spoon and gently shake off excess water. Place your Perfect Poached Egg on your toast, English muffin or however you desire.

Enjoy!!!

Tagged as: Susan