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I just use a pot of water and add some vinegar to convince the white to hold together. Works great and no extra gadgets needed.

This is one unitasker that I love - I think the perfect circular eggs are very appealing, and they look so neat and tidy when I make egg on toast. I always make such a mess when I poach eggs the old way that one of these pans was a necessity. I find that buttering the cups (or using cooking spray) keeps the eggs from sticking.

What about those little silicon cups? Seems like you'd get the lovely uniform eggs without the bulky kitchen gadget. Has anyone tried them?

I only started poaching eggs a short while ago (to add some protein to the lovely spring green salads we ate during a recent heat wave) and they weren't difficult to make at all. Just oil the pan a little and add oil and vinegar, drop the eggs in with a measuring cup and wait...They hold well and scoop up nicely with a slotted spoon. I really don't understand why you'd need this unitasker, that is, unless you "need" your eggs to be a certain shape, I suppose.

Why does their need to be a gadget for everything these days? GAH! :P

I must say, no one NEEDS an egg poacher, and I don't currently have one, but that photo does bring back fond memories from my childhood. My mom had a much cheaper-looking version and she'd always make poached eggs on really special occasions. Now when I make them at home and want them to look pretty, I just oil a small ramekin and crack the egg right in there. Lower it into a small saucepan with a little simmering water and a few minutes later, voila!

I like eggs this way. But I think that when you use the little cups, they don't quite come out poached. It's almost more like making a soft- or hard-cooked egg, texture-wise. So at our house, we either poach them properly or just hard-cook them.

I love my egg poacher! I use it several times a week to make egg mcmuffins. I prefer these to donig them the old fashioned way ebcasue I always find that the old fashioned way yields soggy eggs.

I have a Calphalon style one but my egg cups are just stainless steel. They're crazy hard to clean because the egg sticks to it.

I use my little pyrex custard bowls, submerged in boiling water, to hold the eggs in shape.

I like the silicone cups. I know people always say the skillet with vinegar tip but I don't do it often enough to perfect it and the silicone cups help. The pan probably works great too if you have room for another pan.


Poach Pods

i love poached eggs, and i hadn't heard the vinegar tip, so thanks. i'll add the one tip i do know (maybe everyone does), which is to break the egg into a bowl and pour it gently from the bowl into the pan, rather than just dropping it in. i find it helps it hold together a little better.

the pan is cute, but i don't have the space -- if they sold just the top part, sized to fit on a standard pan, i'd consider it, though.

I love poached eggs, and have a smaller version of this pan (4 cups, not 6). I find that when I poach eggs directly in water, even with vinegar, I lose too much of the white. I do love a properly poached egg, so this is a bit of a compromise for the ease.

I always considered these "coddled" eggs. I only consider the wet cooked eggs poached. I love the taste of both but the expertise involved in making a wet poached egg separates the mice from the men.

I borrowed my brother's fancy Egg poacher that is it's own little appliance. It did an okay job, but it was more like steaming the eggs instead of poaching them. I'd rather have a soft boiled egg or poach them in a pan. I bought a slotted spoon specifically for this reason!

Mmmm poached eggs...