Q&A -- Poaching Eggs

[Fat Guy]

I thought I did recommend a large pot and a lot of water in the course materials, but if you find that it's not in there I'll certainly make an addition.

[Rachel Perlow]

Does the long-time low temperature method worked for poached eggs as well?

Might be the answer for quail eggs, that I can never manage to soft poach.

Inspired by Jack's comment, I experimented extensively with Quail Eggs. See my post in the Cooking forum.

[Fat Guy]

Great stuff, Rachel. It's very gratifying to see people experimenting and posting their photos. Keep 'em coming. This is the sort of thing that makes the eGCI so special.

[NickMach007]

Ok, thanks for the help so far (with the Julia pre-cooking technique), but my eggs are still coming out a little flat (kind of like fried eggs that have been boiled--but not quite so flat). Am I not putting the eggs into the water gently enough? Using a thermometer I've kept the water right around 205 F. Any other pointers?

Thanks in advance.

This past weekend, (almost) all I did was play with eggs: poached and omlettes. I'll tackle some hard cooked ones this week (and maybe some souffles this coming weekend).

[Rachel Perlow]

Have you tried using a deep pot yet?

I think this is so important that I wonder if the class should be edited to recommend this method?

[NickMach007]

Have you tried using a deep pot yet?

I think this is so important that I wonder if the class should be edited to recommend this method?

Yeah, I used an 8qt. stockpot for 2 eggs, so there was plenty of water and room. But I'm pretty new to poaching, so it might just be that I need to practice practice practice... Thanks (the deep pot definitely helped though).

[klc14]

I prefer to work with a lot of water. The increased thermal mass and space are more forgiving, and a good deal of egg-shape formation can occur during the journey to the bottom of a stockpot. But you can poach eggs in a relatively shallow pan so long as the eggs will ultimately be covered by a couple of inches of water. I personally use a medium-large saucepan (2.5+ quarts) for poaching one or two eggs and a stockpot (8+ quarts) for poaching larger quantities.

Deep pot is not the exact phrase but there is a clear overall preference for something with depth ("so long as the eggs will ultimately be covered by a couple of inches of water"). At least once I read it over, I thought so.

I always wondered how to make this work, whenever I tried it I wound up with egg drop soup. Too small a pan, and the "vortex" method did me in. Finally I just bought the specialty pan with insert. I will give the "cupless" method another try tonight or tomorrow, now that I Know The Secrets

[dr_dad]

Well, by the time she gets to ten, it has been about 15-20 seconds. That's how long you need to do this for if you really want it to work.From there, you can crack the egg directly into the water and you'll be fine

if not poached immediatly..i wonder if you need to run under the tap.. to stop the cooking process..

thanks

[Rhea_S]

Poached 4 eggs yesterday. I used an 8-qt pot and lots of water. My egss weren't fresh, so one one thousand and so on. I had nice ovoid eggs with just a few straggly bits. Not a single flat one. Hooray! However, I got my poaching and hard-boiling times mixed up. I thought they were looking a bit rubbery, but I was certain that Fat Guy said 9 minutes. I still think it was a success and I now know better. Also, clean-up was a easy. There was no scrubbing involved since no egg bits tuck to the pot.

[Rhea_S]

I had arugula with prosciutto, poached eggs and "aioli" made with garlic, almond oil and parsley for dinner tonight and I had some problems with the eggs. The first two I tried to poach were a complete mess. They didn't come together at all and the water became all cloudy and disgusting. I used a 4-qt skinny hard-anodized aluminum pot filled with lots of water. Those two ended up in the trash with the other egg that I broke while taking out of the fridge. For my next batch, I used a 5-qt stainless steel dutch oven with lots of water. These two turned out ok -- pictured below although not too good a pic.

My question: Were the differing results due to the type of pot (hard anodized aluminum vs. stainless steel or the width of the pot?

[Fat Guy]

Rhea: I can't think of any reason why the difference between those two pots would have a significant effect on your eggs.

DR: They're in the water for such a short time, I don't imagine there's much threat of carry-over cooking. However, I also don't know why they wouldn't be poached right away.

[dr_dad]

DR:  However, I also don't know why they wouldn't be poached right away.

well i was thinking . that when you are cooking for a large number of guests.. for example at the beach. might have 10-15 people for breakfast.. try to do as much as possable ahead of time..

[Fat Guy]

If you're going to poach eggs for a large number of people, the best thing to do is poach them in advance.

[tazunemono]

I tried a few different methods to poach an egg, and my favorite turned out to be the following: I followed the Child suggestion for pre-cooking the raw eggs in the shell for 15 seconds in boiling water. The eggs were removed and the fire lowered to a simmer (203-207 def. F.) I added 1 tbsp white vinegar and 2 tsp salt to 1.5 quart water. The eggs were done individually for exactly 3 and 4 minutes. The 3 minute egg came out perfect (for me) slightly runny, not firm. The 4 minute egg had some firmness, but was still runny. The texture was not nearly as good as the 3 minute egg. I'll try to up some pics.

Devin

Edited October 3, 2005 by tazunemono (log)

[Chufi]

has anyone ever tried poaching eggs in plastic? There was a piece in a Dutch newspaper about that this weekend, the writer said this is a well-known chef's trick..

you lay a piece of clingfilm flat on a surface, brush it with oil, then put the plastic in a small cup (oiled side on the surface) Crack your egg into it, tie the 'bag' with a piece of string, and poach for 4 minutes. He says this works especially well with older eggs, (makes sense, because the whites have no place to spread).

[Fat Guy]

One thing I think is worth keeping in mind is that poaching eggs should be easy. We've given a lot of tricks here, but they shouldn't overshadow the basic premise that poaching an egg is all about cracking an egg into a pot of simmering water. The other week I was in a rush and had to poach a dozen eggs. I put an eight-quart stockpot filled with water on the stove, added a splash of vinegar and brought it to a simmer. I quickly cracked a dozen supermarket eggs plus three eggs from another dozen into the pot and took them out 3.5 minutes after the last one went in. Threw them in ice water, refrigerated and served later. Fourteen of them came out fine.

[cake]

Two years late to this lesson but it was great nonetheless!

I used the Julia method on some poached eggs, but they didn't come out as neatly as I thought they would. When out of their shells and in the water they still looked like jellyfish. Of course, it may have to do with the fact that I couldn't find the white vinegar and thus had to use white wine vinegar instead...who knows if this mattered.

But, as I was hungry and didn't want to experiment at that moment and already had two failed attempts at poached eggs, I decided to use the saran wrap trick mentioned above. Boy, do I like that trick!

So much so, that I've used it several times in the past week instead of practicing the regular way.

One thing I found out the hard way, today, while making my lunch, is that spraying oil on the saran wrap is REALLY important! Otherwise the egg really sticks!

Anyway, thanks for this great course--my eggs are a lot more appetizing looking now, and easy to make! I will practice more, no doubt, since I am really enjoying getting to eat my practice-sessions!

~Cindy