Poached Egg
A poached egg is an egg cooked by poaching an egg, as opposed to boiling or simmering. A well-poached egg is soft and delicate, with the egg whites solidified around a runny egg yolk.
- Prep
- 7 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 10 min
- Total
- 1 hr 17 min
- Servings
- As written in source
- Difficulty
- Medium
Timings are approximate — worked out from the method, not measured in a test kitchen.
Ingredients
Quantities are retained as written by the source and do not scale automatically. Tap an ingredient to check it off as you go.
Cooking instructions
Procedure
Fill a saucepan with about 1 cm of water. Optionally, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, which helps prevent billowing, though this may impact taste.
Procedure
Bring the water to a "shrimp eyes" stage. It should be about 70–80 °C (155–175 °F) and you should notice small bubbles form on the base of the pan, then rising to the top.
Procedure
Gently stir the water in a circle to create a gentle "whirlpool" effect. This helps prevent billowing.
Procedure
Crack an egg into a strainer and gently shake it to drain the excess liquid whites. Then, lower the strainer into the water and gently roll out the egg. The yolks should set in around 2–3 minutes.
Procedure
Repeat as needed for each egg, waiting 10–15 seconds between eggs, to prevent them from sticking.
Notes, tips, and variations
Fresher eggs keep their shape more easily than older eggs.
Notes, tips, and variations
Use a heavy-based saucepan, since the heat distribution on its bottom is more even.
Notes, tips, and variations
A tablespoon of vinegar can be added to the water, since this helps the eggs to set rapidly and prevents the egg white from billowing.
Notes, tips, and variations
Agitating the water slightly by making a small whirlpool helps to prevent billowing as well as sticking
Notes, tips, and variations
Leaving 10–15 seconds between adding eggs helps prevent them from sticking, particularly in small pans, as the earlier egg will have lightly set on the outside.
Notes, tips, and variations
Proper cooking: A fundamental issue is how long eggs are cooked and at what temperature. These considerations are similar to boiling or coddling eggs, but because the egg is more spread out, it can cook more briefly.
Notes, tips, and variations
Billowing: Poached eggs are ideally compact, rather than spread out or “billowed”, as these latter are delicate and messy. Gently adding the eggs to the water and using vinegar helps reduce billowing.
Notes, tips, and variations
Yolk: Similarly to frying, the egg yolk should remain intact. Make sure to not pierce the yolk as you're cracking the egg.
Photo: AnonymousUnknown author · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0 · Photo source and licence
Wikibooks contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Adapted; quantities retained as written. · Original source
Read it through first
Skim all 13 steps before you start — it is the difference between cooking and firefighting.
Scale it
Use the quantities listed in the original recipe. Adjust them manually if making a different batch size.
Storage
Cool completely, then keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Reheating
Reheat gently with a splash of water in a covered pan, rather than blasting it, so nothing dries out.
Nutrition information is not available for this recipe yet.
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