poached eggs

[deensiebat]

i'm pretty fond of this recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/352

and am thinking of making it for my lunch collective at work. since people eat at different times, things need to be ready-to-go. i was thinking of poaching the eggs the night before, to be heated in either a pot of simmering water or microwave. is this safe? are microwaved poached eggs gross (and/or explodable)? i think that if i keep a pot of simmering water on the stove i can steer people towards using that, but want to make sure i'm not killing them with my night-before poached eggs.

[taryn]

I'd go for the simmering water, microwaved eggs tend to get rubbery. You should be fine as long as you keep them refrigerated.

[M.X.Hassett]

eGci

Poaching

eggs:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=36989

Q&A

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=36988

[JayBassin]

You can pre-poach eggs, then cool them quickly in an ice bath and keep thein m chilled water overnight. At work, you can use the microwave to heat water just below boiling and warm the eggs in the hot water. You won't know the difference.

Edited December 6, 2005 by JayBassin (log)

[Fat Guy]

The standard restaurant technique, as we covered in the aforementioned eGCI clinic, is to poach, shock in ice water, refrigerate and reheat in hot water.

You can certainly use a microwave, though. That's how I've been doing it at home. I poach eggs 18 at a time (the cartons of eggs I've been buying have 18 eggs in them, for whatever reason) and put them (usually I get 14 or 15 to come out well) in two Rubbermaid tubs with ice water in the fridge. I keep them this way for about a week. When it's time to eat them, I take three eggs and put them in a stoneware bowl and microwave for 30 seconds three times. If I go 90 seconds straight, it starts to cook the eggs rather than reheat them. If I do 60 seconds, it doesn't get them hot enough. 75 seconds doesn't quite nail it either. But 30 seconds times three, with a short break between each burst, works great in my microwave. Of course, every microwave is different, the moral of the story being that you can reheat poached eggs in a microwave but only if you take the time to do some experimenting with that particular unit.

[jayt90]

I learned a poaching technique from a restaurant doing a large Sunday brunch. They put 1"-1.5" of water in a large pan, brought it to a simmer, and added the eggs, then covered and kept simmering until barely cooked. The scant amount of water allowed for yellow topped eggs, and there was very little sticking on the pan.

[deensiebat]

thanks for the techniques (esp the link to that great teach-in) and reassurances that i won't sicken my coworkers. we'll see how it goes....

[Fat Guy]

I don't know that anybody can offer you 100% assurance. There are things you can do to minimize risk, but any time you're dealing with runny-center eggs you're going to face some risk. Certainly, if you have any pregnant, elderly or immune-system-compromised coworkers you should not serve them reheated poached eggs. Also, there are a number of food safety precautions that are recommended for food service professionals. For example, when you're cooling the eggs after poaching be sure to do so using a high ratio of ice water to eggs -- this will cool them quickly so they don't hover in the bacteria-encouraging temperature "danger zone." You can find more information on safe egg handling on the American Egg Board site. When cooking for myself, a healthy thirty-something with an apparently strong immune system, I don't take most of the precautions the Egg Board recommends. But if you're feeding a group of people you might want to look at it differently.

[jsolomon]

I don't know that anybody can offer you 100% assurance.

←

FG is right. However, some modern epidemiological techniques are implicating other foods in the salmonella outbreaks of a few decades ago that gave eggs their bad name.

So, the moral is, use good, clean techniques, and your risk will be minimized, but it can never be 100% (just very, very close) if you are using raw eggs, yada yada.

If your coworkers are healthy, you will not have trouble except from the squeamish.

[rooftop1000]

The standard restaurant technique, as we covered in the aforementioned eGCI clinic, is to poach, shock in ice water, refrigerate and reheat in hot water.

You can certainly use a microwave, though. That's how I've been doing it at home. I poach eggs 18 at a time (the cartons of eggs I've been buying have 18 eggs in them, for whatever reason) and put them (usually I get 14 or 15 to come out well) in two Rubbermaid tubs with ice water in the fridge. I keep them this way for about a week. When it's time to eat them, I take three eggs and put them in a stoneware bowl and microwave for 30 seconds three times. If I go 90 seconds straight, it starts to cook the eggs rather than reheat them. If I do 60 seconds, it doesn't get them hot enough. 75 seconds doesn't quite nail it either. But 30 seconds times three, with a short break between each burst, works great in my microwave. Of course, every microwave is different, the moral of the story being that you can reheat poached eggs in a microwave but only if you take the time to do some experimenting with that particular unit.

←

Not about the eggs but....I am so glad someone else noticed that when microwaving something like 10 and 10 isnt the same as 20....ie 10 and 10 will soften a pound of butter but 20 and it gets runny.

tracey