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CHOW Tip
Associate Food Editor Aïda Mollenkamp demonstrates how to achieve the perfect poach. Poached eggs can be kept refrigerated for a day or two; in the second video, Aïda shows how to reheat the cooled egg.
Poached eggs are a lovely accent to many dishes—breakfast, lunch, or light dinner. We like them in the almost-classic Salade Lyonnaisey and in this Roasted Asparagus with Poached Eggs and Miso Butter.
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Poached eggs just got easy to make.-thanks
What rococco nonsense. I've been poaching eggs for 40 years without all this faldera; all this froofery is just intimidating and unnecessary.
The only real trick is to crack eggs separately into a cup as she's done in this video ahead of time; not straight into the water. They need a second to set back up into their own "protein cocoon". They needn't be in separate cups, though doing more than 6 at a time may be difficult. The other advantage to this technique is that if you break an egg coming out, all is not lost! Vinegar is entirely unnecessary. The other trick to keeping the eggs together is that the water be *very* hot, boiling when eggs are added (*not* sub-boiling); adding the eggs will cool the water a touch and after try not to reboil the water (keep it just below boiling at *this* stage not the earlier onw) because the energy of the bubbles can tear the eggs apart.
The big trick is to get the boiling water spinning before you slip the eggs into it from their cup. Get a good vortex going and that keeps the eggs from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then after 1 minute gently move the eggs to dislodge them from the bottom of the pan should they happen to have settled. They will be all tight together in their own little compact lump.
Cook eggs no longer than 3 minutes. Witing longer and testing them as this video shows will result in hard eggs. If you're going to cool and then reheat them (!?) they should be as undercooked as possible to allow for further heating! Geesh. I like to jiggle the egg while in the slotted spoon to observe jiggliness but this takes a little experience.
What's with the ice water? What's the point? The eggs are already compact; perhaps to halt further cooking? Probably unnecessary as they cool down very fast upon removal from the water, but perhaps that's debatable.
I'd never poached an egg before. So, I used Aida's technique...and it worked worked really well.
I emphatically agree with aliris! I think I may have learned the vortex method from Martha, and it is an excellent technique for creating a good shape. Using a frying pan rather than a saucepan is essential. I also flip the eggs after a minute and never do make than four at once. Vinegar? Bleah!
vinegar is very important, it is used to correct the ph or acid in the water, soap scum, is cast iron pots and aluminum skillets which most of us have etc. i poach over 15 doz. eggs in the course of a day and i can tell you that a large 12, 14 15 inch skillet is a better work environment for poaching the simmer is important and the freshness of the eggs, the eggs used in the demo are not as fresh as the need to be, a truly fresh egg will set without a lot of stringers and there will be no stringers and foam on the water. when the egg sets you can flip it and you also can fold the whites into the you to help set the poach. when the eggs are about right, you will know because the egg will start to float and when you pick it up it will be firm and the outer white area will be firm. at home you do not need all of this set up, drop the eggs directly into the water, several orders will cook more evenly than picking up each ramekin to drop each egg. i love this sight but most of us do not own copper stainless lined all-clad pots or stainless slotted spoons. also the larger the slots in the spoon the faster the water drains and there is no need to help the paper industry buy wasting paper towels.
you can practice poaching before you try it on your friends by poaching eggs during the week for yourself. if you are going to do them a day ahead the ice bath is necessary, for health and safety reasons. do not cook over three min if you temp is correct and if you are poaching ahead of time poach for two min and shock in the ice bath, when the eggs are cool clean them up, remove the strings if you wish. salt is a no, it will pull the whites away from the yoke. finally on this issue cooking for friends is about love so if you do not get it right the first time its no big thing, enjoy
I like Patricia Wells method from "Bistro Cooking." In a shallow saucepan, bring your water to a boil, cut the heat, add your eggs, cover and in 3 minutes you have perfect poached eggs. The above method reminds me of culinary school...works but way too impractical.
I think the vortex is from Julia Child. It doesn't work well for me, but probably because I don't get a good vortex motion going. She swirls the pot.
This video was helpful to me. I'll try it this way next time. Except for the ice bath, I don't see the point of that, either.
My godmother (whose mother was arrested as a suffragette outside the Wilson White House, and then upbraided the President-elect at his Inaugural Ball!) had the only trick worth knowing.
Fill a skillet with enough water to cover the your eggs, and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and place the eggs--in their shells--in the pan. Roll them slowly around the edge of the pan with a slotted spoon twice (maybe 10-20 seconds? you'll figure it out)
Remove eggs with spoon and break into the simmering water.
The quick trip around the perimeter will have cooked the outside of the egg just enough to keep the white from developing stringers.
When they are done, take them out, drain and eat. They will not taste like vinegar. They will be perfect. It is magic.
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Looks like making a simple task and making it harder.
Pitch the sauce pan entirely and grab a small diameter non-stick skillet. Add 1/2" of water and bring right to a boil then slightly reduce the heat to stop the rumble of the boil. Crack in the egg till done as per preference.
For sour egg add in 1tsp vinegar prior to boil
For basted egg add in clarified butter right after cracking in the egg.
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everyones got a trick... Isn't that what makes cooking so much fun!!! forget for a moment what we think we know and open your eyes to what you don't!... I never knew about the cup thing or that you could rewarm a poached egg. maybe it does seem impractical to some of us but for others it's new and exciting. there are so many ways to poach an egg and so many ways in which it works...approach food with reckless abandon; blow things up, experiment, laugh and learn something new every day!
Don't forget that most of gadget loving america still poaches eggs in little metal cups. heck I saw a combo toaster egg poacher on the shelves this christmas. we've come along way baby!
I've never reheated a poached egg in my life. Chow has opened up a seriously contentious subject for discussion. But will it change the way I cook my eggs?
I agree with Maxmillan.Easy Peasy.
Maxima 26/2/07
Aida's instructions worked great for me. I have tried to poach every which way and this finally worked. Motor oil JNolan? Hmmm gotta give that a try! Annette
Yeah, but she sure is lovely ; ). I know, I know... not an appropriate comment. But boy you guys are harsh about the technique! Just wanted to give her an instant pick-me-up should she come here and read the messages.
On a purely serious note, the eggs certainly did look fine. And it seemed pretty easy -- in the video -- to me. I've tried the vortex and only made a mess. As for the ice, you're right... seems excessive if you're just going to immediately eat the eggs.
Then again, for adding them to a salad (as they love to do in France, where I live a good part of the year), maybe it's not such a bad thing to know. Buys you a little time to do other preparations, safe in the knowledge that your eggs have stopped cooking.
Thanks for all your comments.
I just wanted to clarify a few things:
By no means is this the only way to poach an egg, but it is a very reliable method. I first heard about vinegar in the water from Shirley Corriher in her book, Cookwise, and it really helps the whites set up nicely.
The idea of the ice water is to then rid of any acidic taste that the trace amount of vinegar might impart and to simultaneoulsy stop the cooking so that the yolk doesn't get overcooked.
Finally, reheating is not too common, but it is helpful isf you want to do a big batch of poached eggs all at once and then have them available for eating as you so desire. Enjoy!
A P.S. to my other note... just to test it, I poached an egg this way for breakfast this morning. Turned out perfectly (I skipped the ice water because I wanted it hot, but no vinegar toast)... AND it was very easy. Took about 3 minutes and 30 secs.
Funny how people make the most elaborate comments on the simplest things... "Dear Abby" said, close to her retirement, that the one thing people got most animated about in her 40 or so years of answering reader questions was "Should the toilet paper roll over or under the roll?"
Also a question... is this "Chow" related to the restaurant of the same name in the West Village? I used to live around the corner on Bleecker and Perry. Now live over in Paris.
jackster12: we aren't related to any restaurants - though it'd be nice for when we're working hard and our stomachs start grumbling.
I'm a professional chef and retired professor from The Culinary Institute of America who has poached thousands of eggs and I think that the technique demonstrated here is completely sound -especially if you are going to poach more than one or two eggs.
Some of the tricks mentioned by the other commentators are fine (e.g. swirling the water) and even inspired (pre-cooking the egg in the shell) but wildly impractical for large batches.
Also the role of the vinegar is as Aida explained and has been part of the classic repertoire for centuries. But the ice water is less about the need to wash off the vinegar than it is to halt the cooking so that the eggs are not overcooked by the time the last egg is poached.
Finally, I would argue that if you use good white wine vinegar there is no need to rinse the taste away bec. it tastes good. Nice job Aida!
For nascent cooks like me, videos like this really help to master relatively basic cooking techniques that will serve me (and those I feed!) for the rest of my life. The techniques in the video are really helpful and informative. I know that most people on this board are already set in their ways but I see no reason as to why this video outraged so many posters. If you don't like the techniques, don't do them and keep to what works best for you!
I've had some extra asparagus sitting around for a few days so I think I've found tomorrow's breakfast. Keep up the good work!
aliris, it's "folderol," and your post has more "folderol" than did the video. You don't even explain how one gets the water "spinning."
At the risk of stating the obvious, you can create a central vortex by stirring the water in your frying pan. I use a slotted spoon (that I will use to lift the cooked eggs out of the water) and stir gently in one direction until I have built up enough momentum to create said vortex.
Using a small dish, I then carefully slip two already cracked eggs into the water. The movement of the spinning water keeps the strands of albumen close to the yolks and the egg fairly tidy.
No vinegar for me.
I love poached eggs.
When the egg is good, there is no better way than to eat it poached. Since my workmate has chickens which lay great eggs, I eat poached eggs a lot.
Aida's method is just about perfect. The vinegar not only helps set the white, but I've become very fond of the flavor dimension it gives to the egg. Since I eat the egg straight away, on buttered toast, I never do the ice bath.
The only possible suggestion I have is the nonstick skillet. I still use about two inches of water, but the nonstick skillet does two things: 1. at a simmer in a nonstick skillet, the bubbles cling to the bottom of the pan creating a little cushion for the egg to rest on. This prevents sticking, the number one cause of yolk breakage. Also, (#2) the nonstick surface helps the same thing, and makes cleanup easy.
A pleasure to watch. I will now forward this video to everyone I know.
You are so funny, "Lets not be risk takers" and only put two in the pan, I am going to try this when I get home, the only I was wondering is the yoke wet or dried out when you cut into it? I guess I will find out before you give me an answer.
STOP! My god, who would have thought that egg-poaching would be the hot spot on the CHOW board ; )
Ann Landers once said that in all her decades of giving advice, where she talked to people about their marriages, child-rearing, career dilemmas, and more... the one on which way the toilet paper is supposed to roll off the spool (over or under) was the one that got the most comments.
This is moving into that kind of territory. But then, I don't know, maybe I'm not watching enough of the other boards too. Go ahead, keep commenting. I just wanted to make the observation.
P.S. It IS a nice site, by the way... and, I'll comment for the second time -- innocuously intended -- you're a babe, as well, Aida. Which is just one more reason to keep coming back to see what's cooking next. Keep up the good work!
^ Not sure who you are addressing, but I'll answer. As far as I'm concerned, all poached eggs aim for a soft/runny yolk (which is how I like them). Hard yolk = a boiled egg.
Not the desired result.
FYI -- a hard egg yolk -- eg in omelettes, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs etc -- is 100% cholesterol.
A runny yolk, even a cooked one, retains the balance of lecithin to cholesterol that offsets the cholesterol intake.
Much as I love quiches and scrambled eggs, I know the healthiest way to consume whole eggs is lightly poached.
Also I don't know about risk-taking, but I poach two eggs at a time simply bc I get better results. But I am only cooking two eggs per two adults, not a family of X, so it works for me.
Hope you enjoy your eggs when you get home! Let us all know how it worked out.
I just tried Aida's method and it worked perfectly. I was going to try the whole vortex thing tomorrow, but this was so easy, why bother? The instructional videos are great, keep them coming.
I enjoyed the video thank you!
Great tips!! Thanks a lot!
according to me i think when u add the egg one must do stirring so that the pocket shape will appear and no need of cutting after the egg is poached.
Informative video...funny too! Thanks...