Is the only benefit to a poached egg is not having to use extra fat??

Thank you!

Thank you for posting this! I've tried reading about how to poach an egg before and I've never been able to get anything more than egg drop soup. It totally helps to SEE someone do it.
Poached egg on a piece of sour dough toast is one of my all time favorite foods. So simple. So delicious.

@cosita, that is one benefit, but it also has this gooey, custard-like texture that you don't get as easily in a fried egg. They're really delicious!

@cosita---a poached egg has a different flavor, just as a hard-boiled egg tastes differently from a scrambled egg. It's one of my favorite ways to eat eggs.

I use an egg poacher, and have learned to cook the eggs in perfect time to making my toast.

This is the way we made them at the restaurant where I used to work, only we dropped them straight into the water we didn't crack them in another recipient first.

Ahhh thanks for this - I gave up on making poached eggs as they are a disaster but i really love them! will try this soon.

saer
http://cravenmaven.wordpress.com

It has been my experience that you should use about 1 tablespoon of vinegar per cup of water to get the perfect coagulation in the white. Also, I like to salt the water before I cook my eggs, as opposed to salting my eggs after they have been poached (so as to avoid the crunch of the salt). Just throw about a teaspoon of salt per cup of water in the pot and allow it to dissolve before dropping the egg in the water.

Other than those two suggestions, the write up is great!

i have tried this over and over, with varying degrees of water temp, vinegar, cups, no cups, etc... and the only way i can make a decent poached egg is with the WestBend Egg Cooker. (it also makes perfect hardcooked eggs, every time.) this is a mandatory device in our home!

Thank god for this post. I'd given up on poaching because my attempts always ended up wasting perfectly good eggs. I will definitely give this a try.

I love the fact that you've done away with the pan of boiling, swirling water/vortex method which, while very dramatic, doesn't really work in my experience. This gentle simmer approach is perfect. Nice video, guys!

I'm not crazy about the taste of vinegar with my poached egg, even though it's very faint. I drop a couple of cookie cutters in simmering water and pour the eggs into those. Works like a charm. Mason jar lids also work pretty well, but they're harder to clean.

Instead of using a measuring cup, I use the small tin can Tuna (Chicken of the Sea, etc.) comes in and put that in the pan. I then crack the egg into that tin can and add vinegar.

I poached my eggs this way, except I turn the heat off once the eggs are in the pan, cover the pan and set a timer for 5 minutes. Perfect every time.

My boyfriend loves poached eggs, however I noticed it always leaves a ring of egg stuff on the stainless steel pot he likes to use. It's really tough to scrub off (I unfortunately get the scrubbing duty.) I've had him use white vinegar so the egg coagulates faster but it still leaves an egg ring. Any suggestions?

I heard recently that the fresher an egg is, the tighter the "white" is to the yolk.This helps the egg stay together better in the water.So the fresher the egg the better for poaching.
I am not sure if it's true,someone should do some experimenting....Not me,I hate poached eggs,lol

i have actually read on a different food blog site that a great way to poach eggs to bring a pot of water to a rolling boiling, then spray microwave safe plastic wrap with cooking spray, put the egg in the plastic wrap and tie a knot to close (which i never do, i have plastic bag snap thingies i use) and drop it in the water for a 3 or so minutes or until desired doneness...

no fuss no muss and clean up in a breeze!

That was great! Turned out perfect, before I was boiling the water way to high.

Thanks!

I'm not crazy about the texture that the vinegar gives poached eggs-- it feels, I don't know, kind of weird on my teeth. Bizarre, yes. But I just ordered a cool tool that I hope will make poaching eggs easier: the Poach Pod! http://www.aplusrstore.com/product.php?id=359 I'll give a review on my blog once I get it!

http://www.remarkablydomestic.com

I just have a 4-egg egg poacher!

We use the poach pods too (I know, unitasker). We eat poached eggs all the time, and I don't like the taste of vinegar with my eggs.

This is fantastic, thanks. I have successfully poached an egg (though it's still a bit of a surprise when it turns out right), but have also ruined several, so the visual will definitely help with my egg poaching education.

I'm not so sure about the safety of plastic wrap in near boiling water; ditto for previously used tuna cans, which are actually aluminum not tin. But hey, to each his own.

Poached eggs and toast are my daily breakfast. I skip the vinegar and just use fresh eggs. Old eggs have "looser" whites which tend to drift around. If I'm feeling fancy on the weekend I add a little wine, instead. I agree about salting the water before adding the eggs, too.

I love poached eggs on salad. As it bursts it gives an amazing sauce to the dish.

It is 100% true that a fresh egg will have a white that stays intact. I've seen this myself and also demonstrated by on English TV by Delia Smith. So having a very fresh egg is having half the battle won.

My tip for winning the second half: don't use a saucepan. Instead use a frying pan filled almost to the top. Simmer the water and slide the egg in. It can't drop away into a foamy pot and a wide pan makes it easy to poach 4 eggs together.

This is my favorite way to eat eggs... and I hadn't realize until now that so many people have problems making them. I think I never even read how to make them, I did them by intuition. Anyway, I salt the water and don't use vinegar. I don't let them cook for so long, but I use the water hotter so that' why...

A few months ago I was wondering if you could poach eggs in the microwave so I went to google for help. It's really simple and quick. You just need to fill a cup with water, put the egg inside it and take it to microwave until you hear a 'pop' sound. Perfect!

A great tip my boyfriend suggested yesterday - using a small hand mixer to create the "swirly vortex thing" (why yes, that is the technical term) and then immediately dropping the egg into the "eye" of the vortex. Helped keep our (not super!fresh) eggs nice and tight.

Our only problem was that we poached 4 eggs, and made them one at a time, resulting in the first two becoming a bit cold. Next time, two pans at once... :)

The point the person made about using a frying pan is valid - you don't want to drop the egg into a depth of water where it has more room to spread and make a mess. However, you can achieve the same effect in your sauté pan by just reducing the level of water.

Also, a great trick I learned from a chef is that poached eggs can be made in advance, kept on the plate with the paper towel (use non-linty, brown variety) and then reheated by gently dropping them back into a bowl of hot water for a minute. The yolks will remain runny, and this way you can serve a lot of people without the timing being too stressful.

I thought up something the other day that worked great:

1. Boil water in saucepan.
2. Spray inside of standard half-spherical ladle (mine is the generic IKEA metal one) with olive oil spray, add egg into ladle.
3. Hold ladle in water so that the rim is almost in the water. Keep doing this until about 1/2 of the top of the egg turns white.
4. Allow a little boiling water to flow into the top of the ladle above the egg, helping the top to cook faster.

Done in about 4 minutes! It slid out of the ladle well w/a spatula, and it was a perfect circle shape that fit on my english muffin.

I use Delia's method -- perfect every time, and no vinegar.

http://www.deliaonline.com/how-to-cook/eggs/how-to-poach-an-egg.html

Thank you for this! I had never tried poaching before as I wasn't quite sure the best way to go about it and always feared a horrible egg soup end to it.

I got up the gumption after this post, and it was fantastic! I've had to shy away from eggs, as the fat needed to fry in tends to upset my stomach. These I can enjoy all day!

A poached egg and a buttermilk crumpet. I am a happy reader.

Two firsts for me tonight..

1) cooking a poached egg
2) eating a poached egg

I have to say I am impressed. This has everything I want from a fried egg (minus maybe a little bacon fat) but it's so much easier. To compensate for the lack of bacony goodness... I added a slice over the toast and sprinkled a little fresh parmesan to boot. My only regret is that I didn't make more :)

I love poached eggs! They are so simple to make, and I like that they are easy to throw on top of a salad or bed of lentils. I prefer these to cooking eggs in fat, as I think you get more of the essence of the egg with the soft, creamy yolk all wrapped in the white's cushiony blanket of fluffiness.

Gordon Ramsay suggests stirring the water and using an ice bath afterward to prevent overcooking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbAQgJF3d7E

Love this, guys! Looking forward to more in the series. The trick of breaking the egg into a measuring spoon (or ladle as another reader suggested) should make all the difference in avoiding my typical poached egg fiascos.

And not to be the safety police, but:

@beanz1115 Microwave-safe or not, I'd be hesitant to cook plastic wrap in boiling water.

@ahjushi Not sure cooking in tuna cans is very safe, either.

I love my Poach Pods! I put cheese, ham, herbs, or other little goodies in the bottom, and they get baked into the poached egg! Soft, melty cheese, gooey egg, and everything else I'd want on my toast in one hot package. Delicious. Easier to clean than my eggy pots (egg proteins are tough!)

Versinae, I like your method!

I'm going to give the egg-directly-in-water one more shot, but I swear to god I'm getting a poach pod if it doesn't work, unitasker be damned!

A regular in my house is vegetable stir-fry on rice with a poached egg on top. The egg breaks and the yolk goes down through the veggies to the rice. It also adds some protein without adding meat to the dish.

I love poached eggs! When I was growing up my Mom always made them in milk and then we would pour the poached egg with milk over toast.

You had me at 3:24 with your "zoop!" egg-flipping sound effect. I'm in love!

Check this out: http://lemonchiffoncake.blogspot.com/2011/11/poached-fried-egg.html

I love a good poached egg on a toasted, buttered English muffin. But I've got to agree with others: You need some salt in the water, and the vortex absolutely helps. The simple physics dictate that it will help the white stay tighter.

Bring the water to a simmer (with white vinegar and salt), crack one or two eggs into a bowl, stir the water with a spoon, and drop the eggs in. Put a lid on, turn off the heat, and set a timer for about 4 minutes (depending on how well-done you like your eggs). Perfect every time.

I saw this on the Hairy Dieters (When Hairy Bakers/Bikers from the UK did a diet show). They put the eggs, still in the shell, into the boiling water for several seconds before cracking the eggs into the water. It worked so well when I tried it. Now this is how I do it all the time.

Oh I love poached eggs! I put one on top of one of my all times favourite salads- broccolini panzanella with almonds. http://liviasweets.com/post/24478625880/panzanella-salad-with-broccolini-almonds-and-poached

Taejin I saw that on a recent Hairy Bikers show - dropping the whole egg into the water for about 20 seconds then cracking the eggs to poach as normal. Been meaning to try this but haven't had a chance. Glad to hear that it worked (not just TV show - this is one we made earlier - worked).

For a quick morning treat I like to use the old radiation box. I found an easy technique on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eisPzEOh8M