How to perfectly poach an egg?

27 Apr How to perfectly poach an egg?

Poaching an egg! Now, this is something that needs a lot of expertise. To be frank, I and my partner spend a lot of time and obviously eggs learning to poach an egg perfectly and using various techniques. If you are poaching an egg for the first time, and if it does not come out right, don’t be disappointed. As the saying goes, practice makes a man perfect. Meanwhile, I will be jotting down some points here that you need to keep in mind when you poach an egg. In addition to that, I will also be mentioning different methods of poaching an egg. Make note, some are tried and some are not.

Tips for poaching an egg

The most important ingredient used, that is the egg, must be fresh. A stale egg does not poach perfectly. But, the white of the egg spreads and it will be a total disaster. So you have to make sure that the egg you use for poaching is really fresh.

Do not break the egg directly into the water.

The next thing that you need to do is to strain the egg in a thin strainer so that the watery part of the egg is completely removed. This helps in perfect poaching. This is one thing that I have tried and it really worked.

You can also put the strained egg along with the vinegar into a deep spoon and then dip the spoon into the boiling water so that the egg whites does not disperse. If you find a ladle big and deep enough to hold an egg, poaching it will be so easy.

Some even use a shallow vessel with lots of water for poaching. This helps to make deep swirls.

The next most important point is the time you should keep the eggs in boiling water. Do not keep it for too long a period, because then the yolk may overcook and it may not ooze out properly.

Make sure that the egg you use is not refrigerated. It has to be at room temperature.

Adding Vinegar while Poaching

Know that a few drops of vinegar do not alter the taste of the egg. Some add the vinegar into the water when it is boiling. However, you can add a couple of drops of vinegar to the strained egg and then put the egg into the water. Ooh, la la! Both works! However, if the egg is really fresh, you can poach it perfectly even without the vinegar.

There is a reason why you use vinegar when poaching. Vineger helps the egg white to firm faster and prevents them from dispersing in the poached water.  

How to test if your eggs are fresh

Now, here is a simple method to check if the eggs you bought from the stores are really fresh or not. Take a bowl of water and immerse the eggs in the water. If the eggs lay flat at the bottom, that means they are really fresh. Alternatively, if they stand on the tip, it means that the eggs are a couple of days old. If the eggs float in water, do not use them, they are really stale.

To summarise, to get a perfectly poached egg, make sure you use a fresh egg – now this is the thumb rule. Now go grab a fresh egg and poach it.