The Poached Egg Discussion I Made It

The poached egg discussion

frankieanne 9 years ago

I got this in my Serious Eats newsletter - or is it a newsemail? - today and thought I would share. This is a method for poaching eggs I have never seen before!
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/the-food-lab-how-to-poach-eggs-for-a-party.html

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

Thanks for the link, Frankie! I am trying to perfect poached eggs, but can't seem to get away from the spidering effect of the whites. Maybe putting the eggs in a strainer first, as shown in the article, will help. I'm still not sure about putting the eggs in a steamer basket to cook them, though, although that might be something to try if the strainer trick by itself doesn't work.

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

I had never heard of straining the eggs. I thought that was pretty interesting. Also found it so that the author worked in a restaurant for so many years - poaching eggs!

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

In search of the perfect poached eggs, I have tried all the tricks out there, adding salt, vinegar, and creating a vortex (and standing on one leg during a full moon while twirling a flaming baton in one hand and juggling a chainsaw in the other), but straining the eggs turned out to be the best tip ever for poached eggs!!! I made some for my hubby for breakfast this morning and they were picture perfect with no spidering at all! I even took the temperature of the water to make sure it was the 180 degrees recommended in the video. My eggs are a couple of weeks old, but still worked just fine, so I'm not sure why they're supposed to be as fresh as possible. Some videos have suggested cutting away the spidery whites before serving to make the eggs look better, but I think they should be able to be served right from the pan without any additional messing around. Besides, when the bacon, coffee, and toast are all done at the same time as the eggs, who wants to be standing there cutting away excess egg whites? Not me. These came out of the water perfect, perfect, perfect and my hubby loved them! My next experiment will be making them ahead of time and reheating them. Based on today's results, they should be fine. Thank you again, Frankie!

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

Well, I'll be! What a great report, Bakerme! That's wonderful to know that works. When I first saw the straining part I was thinking "what a waste" but then realized that if that part of the white spiders away or falls off, then you aren't getting it on the plate anyway. I'll have to try this now for certain. Thanks for letting me know!

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Good4U 9 years ago said:

Very cool Bakerme! Excellent to know in fact:) I am definitely going to try this for sure. ROFL @ standing on one leg during a full moon while twirling a flaming baton in one hand and juggling a chainsaw in the other:)
Thanks for the link, Frankie:)

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mommyluvs2cook 9 years ago said:

I love this and so glad you tried it Bakerme! What a cool idea to strain water out of the egg yolks. Thanks for showing us this FA!!

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

Well, y'all are welcome! :)
I found it interesting that in my whole 56 years of being around that I have never, ever heard of anyone straining the eggs before poaching!

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

Gotcha beat, Frankie. I'm older than that and I've never heard of it, either! ;)

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

I don't make poached eggs very often, mainly because of my previous failure to make good ones, but, still stoked by my success using the method in Frankie's video, I decided to try the make-ahead method this week-end. That's twice in the same week, so I think that's a record for me! I made 2 poached eggs Saturday morning and they came out perfect again, just like the picture in the video and I felt like a professional chef - LOL! I put them in a container of cold water and stuck them in the fridge overnight in anticipation of using them for dinner tonight. We like breakfast for dinner instead of for breakfast, so tonight we had corned beef hash, English muffins, and my hubby had the 2 poached eggs. Knowing they would be ice cold right out of the fridge and 2 minutes in hot water would be insufficient to warm them up, I took them out and set them on the counter 2 hours before needing them. One hour before dinner, the water was still ice cold, so I drained it and added cold water from the tap; not nearly as cold. I was afraid even 2 minutes in hot water would be just enough to make the yolks too done for my hubby, so I slightly undercooked them on Saturday, working on the theory that the additional heat in the water would finish cooking them to the desired degree of doneness and that worked great. What didn't work was getting them hot enough, even though my hot tap water is scalding hot, and they were lukewarm at best. I topped the hot hash with the reheated poached eggs and the heat from the hash helped. I don't have a microwave, and maybe putting the eggs in hot water and zapping them for a minute would make them hotter. Maybe that's how they do it in the restaurants?? Using Frankie's method is SO easy that, from now on, I will just make the eggs as needed and forget about making them ahead of time. Thanks again for sharing the link, Frankie!

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

I'm really happy to hear how this is working out for you. Even though the eggs were lukewarm did it seem like they were freshly poached?
I need to try this - still. I'll have to put it on my weekend "to do" list. :)
Thanks, Bakerme!

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

I can't eat eggs in their egg form (scrambled, fried, hard boiled, etc.), so had to ask my hubby if they tasted freshly poached and he said yes. When you try this easy method, please come back and post your success story. I think you'll be amazed at the results!

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

This works great! I didn't even use a strainer - just a colander. I made two eggs to go with my leftover salmon. Prettiest poached eggs I ever made!

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

Glad to hear the eggs came out perfectly for you, Frankie! Did you save one back to reheat tomorrow? Maybe you'll have better luck getting it warm enough. Isn't it funny how excited we get when something comes out so well - LOL!

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

No, I ate them both. :-P
Yes, its really great to have found this as I really love poached eggs!

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

Well, you'll just have to make more. Oh darn, make you eat something you really like - LOL!

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

:-D

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

Another update on the poached eggs method Frankie posted. I made two poached eggs for my hubby's breakfast this morning. You've created a monster, Frankie, but my hubby isn't complaining - LOL! The last two times I made them, I put each egg in a separate sieve to drain out the excess white. Today I thought I would save myself from having to wash two and used only one, draining one egg at a time. Interestingly enough, the first egg came out as expected, perfect. The second egg still came out perfect BUT with the egg and the yolk completely separated from each other and some slight spidering of the white. My hubby said it tasted just as good as the first egg, but I was stymied as to what could have produced such a drastic result until I realized that maybe some of the white from the first egg clogged up the mesh on the sieve and not as much white drained out. At least that's my story and I'm stickin' to it! So, from now on I will use two separate sieves and just wash them. Just thought you'd like to know :)

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frankieanne 9 years ago said:

That is interesting, Bakerme. As I said, I used a plain ol' colander and I did drain both of my eggs at one time. Dumped them in at the same time as well. Maybe it was just that egg in particular?
Glad you are making your hubby happy. :-)

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bakerme 9 years ago said:

I'll have to try your trick next time, Frankie, and drain both at the same time in my small colander. Did you put them in the water right from the colander, and at the same time, or how did you do it? Yep, hubby loves that he is getting poached eggs more often now!

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