Poached Eggs
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How to Cook Perfect Poached Eggs
Getting your poached eggs perfect is simple.
You can try all of the Tips & Tricks you want, but the truth is that there is only one way to the perfect poach egg.
Making the perfect poached eggs can be tricky to say the least, we have all tried different methods (myself included) more often than not to be left with a stringy mess floating around your pan. There are many reasons for this and we are going to take a look at some of the key mistakes that folks make when attempting to Poach a egg and show you the right way to do it.
Lets take a look at a few mistakes folks make. The number one has to be water temperature. Remember that the water you are going to poach your eggs in has to be boiling !! All too often it is the case that you drop your egg into the pan while the water is not boiling and the white of the egg splits and runs all through the water.
It is also important to not over fill your pan, you only need enough water to cover your eggs. If you have the pan too full you will wind up with the same result, the white of the egg (Albumen) will just split and run through the water.
You need to get your hand as close to the water as you can before dropping your egg in. And that's what I mean by distance is the key. If you drop this egg in from any height, again you are going to wind up with a mess in your pan. So it is important to get your egg into the water as fast and as low altitude as possible.
The egg should start to cook as soon as it enters the water, and it will hold it's shape together. If not then your water is to cold and Game Over.
Cooking timesYou should cook the egg for as long as you would boil it, that is to say - 3 minutes and it will be perfect and still runny on the inside.
And now we get to the bread & butter section of this article, or rather the Tricks & Tips section. Guess what, there are no tricks and no shortcuts to making the perfect Poached Egg. It is simple and straight forward, water boiling (Not too much water) and low altitude egg drop.
You don't need to have your water spinning like a crazy whirlpool either , all this will do is spin that egg white into a stringy ball. Try it if you like but you will be lucky if this works every time and if it does it is just because the water is boiling and you didn't drop your egg in from a great height.
So we come to the question of Vinegar, do you need it ?
No, it the answer, plain and simple. It in no way helps the egg to hold together and is only added to give the eggs some additional flavour. So add it if you like but it is only ever for flavour.