Poached eggs are just the best. Especially, if the eggs are fresh as the morning. Poached eggs are the healthiest way to cook eggs. The yolk is slightly cooked and enclosed in the white, ready to run away at first poke.
Poached eggs are very nutritious and delicious anytime of the day, yet I love them for breakfast. I am sure that my little video will give you few tips on how to poach the perfect eggs to YOUR liking. You will never be afraid to poach away and show your new acquired skill to everyone.
To have the perfect poached eggs you need to try to find the freshest eggs. A fresh egg will have the white tight to the yolk and will not disintegrated whilst cooking.
Use a sauce pan to cook them with plenty of water. To be poached, the eggs needs to be totally submerged in the poaching liquid.
You must add an acid liquid to the water such as vinegar or lemon/lime juice. This really help the egg white to coagulate and stick to the yolk. Any vinegar can be used to the ratio 1:10 (10ml:1Liter). If you use a coloured vinegar it may tint a bit your eggs.
Your water must be to boiling point at first (100°c-big bubbles in motion) and reduced to simmering point (92-94°c-small bubbles) before your pour the egg in the water. Strong bubbles will break the egg white straight away and separate from the yolk.
Always crack one egg at the time and pour it in a little container rather than straight in the water. This will save you time. If you break the yolks and put it in the water you will have to change the poaching liquid and start again. Putting the egg in a ramekin first allows you to check for broken shell, rotten egg, and broken yolk.
Poaching time:
- For a runny egg yolk, 3 minutes in the water.
- For a cooked outside yolk but soft jelly like inside, 4 minutes in the water.
- For a hard yolk, 5 minutes in the water. Use a Timer for it.
Do not over crowed the sauce pan. As you add more eggs it cools down the poaching liquid and take more time to cook. You may need to heat up the water for 30 seconds. Furthermore, it makes it more difficult to control the cooking process of each egg.
Vortex style or not? This mean creating a vortex in the water just prior dropping the egg in the water. It works well but only if you cook one egg at the time.
Salt or no salt? A little salt can be use for seasoning, too much will change the density of the water and make the egg a little harder to cook.
You can pre-cook your eggs in advance for example if you cater for many people, you can poach your eggs few days ahead. You must under cook them a bit if you want to re-heat them (30seconds in simmering water). Most importantly you must poach them and refresh them straight away in an ice water bath (5 Min).
CHEF’S TIP that you never see. We do trim the egg white with scissors. If there is a little bit of egg white string remain, we cut it off. This make the egg look totally oblong and perfect.