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.
Ingredients
- Eggs
- Vinegar (optional)
Steps
- Fill a saucepan with about 1 cm of water. Optionally, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, which helps prevent billowing, though this may impact taste.
- 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.
- Gently stir the water in a circle to create a gentle "whirlpool" effect. This helps prevent billowing.
- 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.
- Repeat as needed for each egg, waiting 10–15 seconds between eggs, to prevent them from sticking.
More recipes with eggs
Adapted from “Poached Egg” in the Wikibooks Cookbook by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for this site; this page's recipe text is shared under the same license.