Monday, March 3, 2008

The true poached egg part II

I've been making poached eggs for 4 months now. And some of what I thought previously was a bunch of wrongness. After much experimentation, here's my drill now.
  1. Boil some water in a small pan. Don't over fill the pan. My goal is to barely cover the egg(s). If the water is too high, the egg falls farther in the water and separates more.
  2. Cut the heat off or very low, before adding the eggs and wait if necessary. The water should be still when adding the egg(s). In particular, not boiling and do not swirl the water.
  3. Crack the egg in a small , thin rimmed bowl. I use a chinese rice bowl, for example.
  4. Put the lip of the bowl almost to the top of the water and gently dump the egg in. It should stay largely in one main blob.
  5. Each egg you add will lower the water temperature, so keep track of the order they have been added.
  6. Once all eggs have been added, turn back on the heat to get bubbles forming but not roiling.
  7. Use the boiling water to heat up some bowls to hold the finished eggs. I use the same bowls I broke the raw eggs into earlier, after rinsing them out the hot poaching water.
  8. After the whites look like they have solidified, but the yolks still look "too soft" remove the eggs with a slotted spoon. The first egges in can be remove a good bit before the final eggs, if you've made 3 or more eggs.
  9. The eggs will continue to cook in their own residue heat in the heated bowls.
  10. Enjoy with salt, pepper and/or some butter. And toast.
I like my yolks still runny. Done right, they rival the best softboiled egg and it's a lot less work.

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