Poached egg, all the tricks to poach perfect eggs
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Total: 3 min Diners: 1
I’ve always felt that poached eggs, also known as poached eggs or flower eggs were the healthy alternative to fried eggs, as they allow you to enjoy the runny yolk, but without adding fat and without making a mess in the kitchen. And as if that wasn’t enough it turns out that preparing a poached egg is something that can be done in many ways and today we’re going to tell you all about them.
Ingredients
Egg, 1 Water, 1 liter Salt Vinegar, 2 tablespoons
How to make a poached egg by the traditional method
Step 1
We heat the water in a pot. It is important to put at least one liter of water so that it is easier to maintain the temperature during cooking, that is to say, that the temperature of the water does not drop drastically when the egg is added.
Step 2
While the water is heating, break the egg into a glass, being careful not to break the yolk.
Step 3
When the water is about to boil and we will know it is because small bubbles start to form on the surface, stir the water with a spoon to form a small whirlpool on which we will drop the reserved egg. In this way, the whirlpool itself will “collect” the egg white and prevent it from dispersing through the water.
Now, for this to happen, it is important that the egg is very fresh, because freshly laid eggs have a denser white, but as the days go by, it becomes more liquid. If the egg is a few days old, it does not mean that it cannot be poached, but to do it with good results we have to make use of a couple of little tricks, the first one is to add a couple of spoonfuls of vinegar to the water. The second is to put a strainer over the glass in which we are going to crack the egg so that the most liquid part of the white passes through the strainer and we can discard it.
Step 4
In either case, let the poached egg cook for three minutes, then remove it from the water with a skimmer, salt it to taste and serve it immediately.
How to make poached eggs with cling film
When we want to make many eggs at once and we don’t want to complicate our lives by forming swirls and keeping track of how long each egg has been in the pot, the cling film technique is very practical, as it also saves us from having to strain the egg to remove the more liquid white and always ensures that our eggs will have a rounded shape which is what we are looking for.
Step 1
Cut a piece of cling film, put it over a bowl and brush it with a little oil.
Step 2
Crack the egg on the cling film, season it with salt and pepper to taste and, if you like, you can add any other ingredient to flavour it, such as a few slices of ham, an aromatic herb, etc.
Step 3
Close the cling film by joining the four ends and tying a knot, or by using a bit of bridle twine or kitchen tongs.
Step 4
In a pot we boil plenty of water and when it is about to boil we put our eggs and let them cook for three minutes. After this time we take them out. If there are many of them, it is convenient to transfer them to a bowl with cold water so that the cooking is cut and we do not overcook them while we are removing them from the plastic wrap.
Another option is to steam them, for example with the steamer of a food processor. In this case we will have to cook them for about six minutes and it is a method that has the advantage that guarantees that all the eggs come out with the same cooking time, because when the time is up we do not have to go “fishing” them one by one, but just move the steamer away from the steamer source.
A more Eco-friendly solution to avoid using plastics are the reusable silicone poachers, which are suitable for use in a pot with water, in steamers or in the microwave. There are the basic models, the more artistic ones to make poached eggs with shapes, or the specific ones for microwaves.
How to make a poached egg in the microwave
.This solution is good when we need to poach few eggs and we have a small kitchen with few fires that comes a time when they are all busy and we crave a poached egg to accompany a cream or a vegetable dish.
In this case, as in the traditional method, the good result depends on how fresh the egg is, so it is convenient to use the trick of the strainer and put a few drops of vinegar in the water if we are not sure that it is an egg with very few days since laying.
Step 1
In a bowl we put enough water so that when we have to put the egg in it, it is completely covered by the water and, if necessary, a spoonful or two of vinegar. We put the bowl with water in the microwave and put it to heat at full power a couple of minutes until the water is about to boil – the exact time will depend on the microwave that each one has, so the first time you have to control the process-.
While the water is heated we break the egg in a glass.
Step 2
When the water is about to boil we take the bowl out of the microwave, being careful not to burn ourselves, pour the egg, cover the bowl with a plate and put it back in the microwave at maximum power for about 40 seconds.
Step 3
All that remains is to remove the egg from the water with the help of a skimmer as if we had done it by the traditional method, season it to taste and serve it immediately.
Soaked eggs and low-temperature eggs
To finish a little note about soft-boiled eggs and low temperature eggs, which are other ways of cooking eggs leaving the white curdled to taste and the yolk liquid, but in which unlike poached eggs or poached eggs, the eggs are cooked in the shell.
Theboiled egg is an egg that is cooked as if we were going to make a hard-boiled egg, but we only cook it for four minutes, so that the white has set but has not hardened and the yolk remains liquid. These eggs are served unpeeled, in an egg cup and removing only the upper part of the shell, and are eaten either by dipping in them or with the help of a teaspoon.
Low temperature eggs are cooked by precisely controlling the temperature and cooking time at all times using specific tools for this purpose. By choosing the right combination of time and temperature we can achieve a lot of different results such as completely curdled egg white and completely liquid yolk, or almost curdled yolk and almost curdled but not hardened egg white. To know these combinations just take a look at the post in which we explained some time ago how to cook an egg at low temperature.
