Posted by: John Oxton on 01 Apr 2007
The secret to good poached eggs is, quite simply, good eggs. You wouldn’t buy yellow broccoli and be surprised when it didn’t turn green on boiling, so why expect good poached eggs if you use the shit eggs they sell at supermarkets as your starting point? The same rules apply here as with any other ingredient: start with shit, you’ll end up with shit; start with good shit and you are more likely to end up with good shit. Though, of course, the latter does depend on your skills. I’ve seen many people turn a silk purse into a pig’s ear!
Actually, let me just sidetrack and say a few words about those shit supermarket eggs. Firstly, it’s not all bad. Because they have been stored, and because the whites have had time to break down a little, they are really easy to peel once boiled. If you have a supply of super fresh eggs, warm from the chicken’s egg hole, you will know how difficult they are to peel when boiled.
My tip for peeling super fresh boiled eggs, by the way, is to do it when they are stone cold (fridge cold even) and try cracking the blunt end first and peeling from there; you may spot the thin membrane coating the egg, sort of attached to the shell, and if you peel that, you may get lucky and get a nice clean peel. Better still, though, don’t boil them, poach them.
Which leads me back to the question of good poached eggs. You don’t need some magic pan. You certainly don’t need to wrap them in cling film as I have heard suggested. In fact the cling film trick makes no sense when you think about it: you take it (your shit supermarket egg) out of its natural shell, wrap it in toxic plastic and boil. Err, right, so why not just soft boil it in the shell, peel whilst still warm and serve it the way instead? Remember shit eggs are easy to peel, soft boiled and warm should be no problem. In fact I know that a warm soft boiled egg is gorgeous on a piece of fresh grilled tuna with some green beans, olives and a nice shallot dressing. Just remember a warm soft boiled egg just needs a gentle hand when peeling; treat it like a new man (gently and with love) and you will reap the reward.
So, where were we? Oh yes how to poach an egg, here goes:
- Buy very fresh, local, eggs or don’t even bother trying to poach.
- Fill a relatively large pan with water and bring to the boil, add a tablespoon (or two) of white wine vinegar.
- DO NOT ADD SALT TO THE WATER, IT WILL BREAK DOWN THE WHITES.
- Crack your egg into a ramekin or small glass, or cup.
- Whisk your boiling water so there is a whirlpool at the center of the pan. NEVER USE AN ALUMINUM PAN AND WHISK TOGETHER, NEVER!!!!!!
- Gently tip the egg from the ramekin/cup/glass into the center of the vortex.
- Do not allow the water to boil rapidly but gently simmer.
- Practice until you know when the egg is cooked just to your liking.
- Remove from the pan using a spoon with holes in (a holy spoon, if you like).
At this point you have two options. You can serve the egg immediately or (in keeping with my post about doing things the day before) you can drop it gently into iced water to stop it cooking and leave it in the water (in the fridge if it’s the next day but don’t bother if it’s an hour or three) until you are ready to reheat it, in gently boiling water, later. If you do go for the reheat method you should leave the egg a little undercooked as it will cook more as it is reheated. You can also reheat many more eggs at once than you can poaching to order; so I thoroughly recommend this method if you are preparing for a dinner party with 12 poached eggs involved.
Sorry there are no timings on this post but I will explain another day how I used to time things when I was a chef.
Comments
# on the Sunday April 1, 2007 Ben added:
Thanks John, I often fancy a poach egg for my lunch :) – the problem I’ve got now is, I really fancy giving this a shot and the local farm’s shop is closed damnit! Thanks to your article I’m almost refusing to have supermarket poached eggs now. Thanks again!
Now, wheres the article on “the perfect toast for your perfect egg” ?
# on the Sunday April 1, 2007 Luke Dorny added:
I’m no cook, but this method sounds ingenious!
Thanks for the tip!
# on the Sunday April 1, 2007 Graham Bancroft added:
I’ve always done it like this but added vinegar, not sure why though. The Wife has always called it ‘scrote on toast’ which just isn’t nice but hey. Organic supermarket eggs aren't too bad but I would agree that there is nowt as delightful as a proper fresh egg.
Finally, I must ask you to qualify the use of so many exclamation marks when you shout about the aluminiumumunim (for the USA) and whisk thing, is it something to do with creating a flux capacitor, or completely different?
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 John Oxton added:
So what you saying Graham, white wine vinegar isn’t vinegar somehow? Racist!
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 Richard Rutter added:
Bah bollocks to the whisk – cheffy nonsense; just plop a couple of eggs in some gently simmering water and you’ll be fine by my reckoning. Amen to the fresh, local eggs thing though. (That said the Columbian blacktails from Waitrose are pretty tasty).
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 John Oxton added:
Exactly… if you want your eggs to come out the shape of a good pair of bollocks.. use the whisk.. else go for the pert breast look by simmering. If you want to get really technical then the water should be simmering only on one side to create a rolling action; again to give the egg good shape… but hey it’s all cheffy bollocks, just scramble the bastards and be done with it.
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 Neil Ford added:
No salt eh? That may be where I’m going wrong. Beck won’t touch my ‘poachies’ on account of the egg white disintegrating into “Chicken spunk”.
She’s a bit fussy.
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 Dave Verwer added:
Poaching is my absolute favourite way to cook an egg. I used to use vinegar too but I find it takes away too much from the taste so for the last few years I have been eau naturel ;) I like the idea of only letting the water boil on one side, I will try that…
On a general point, is ther any chance of full text feeds? I cant abide (which basically means, don’t read) partial text feeds
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 lm added:
would be good idea if we can subscribe for comments as well ( some additional wisdom is not an excess:D
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 Richard Rutter added:
I think the whisk thing is a bit of cheffy overkill. Just plopping your eggs into slightly simmering water will do the job nicely (although perhaps not as neatly) and it means you can do a few eggs at the same time.
On the subject of supermarket eggs, I’ve found the organic Columnbian blacktails from Waitrose to be pretty good, although as you say, nowhere near as good as fresh local eggs.
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 John Oxton added:
In the same way as typographic detail is designer overkill perhaps?
I think you just inspired my next post, Richard :)
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 Graham Bancroft added:
John, I do apologies, I missed the white wine vinegar bit, but I can now confirm that poached eggs are not good with white wine.
I’d have to agree with Richard, the Columnbian blacktails are the best eggs you can buy off the shelf, nice box also.
# on the Monday April 2, 2007 Graham Bancroft added:
I’d have to agree with Richard, the Columnbian blacktails are the best eggs you can buy off the shelf, nice box also.
# on the Wednesday April 4, 2007 John Oxton added:
Poached eggs are damn fine with red wine, though.
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