Tis then I took to poaching, as you shall quickly hear

[venta]

A personal achievement: last night I had a poached egg for tea.

It was round, correctly cooked, and coherent.

Me and poached eggs do not have a good history. I think I first attempted to cook them when somewhere with davefish and keris. It was not a success.

You get your pan of simmering water, crack an egg into it... and the egg immediately spreads around the pan into a stream of messy tendrils of albumen. I don't care what Delia says, this happens every time; the result is not my idea of a poached egg.

People have recommended stirring the water quickly so you're cracking the egg into a vortex. This, they say, will keep the egg a coherent shape. They lie.

Others recommend putting vinegar into the hot water. As far as I can tell, this doesn't work and it makes your egg taste of vinegar.

I bought a device called an egg poacher, which was like a diddy little ladle which hung over the edge of the pan. It did keep the egg coherent, but also made sure that the bottom was cooked solid and rubbery while the top was still runny.

Yesterday I experimented with a theory. I got my pan of water up to a simmer, and then I dropped a largeish biscuit-cutter into it. I cracked the egg so that it fell inside the biscuit-cutter. Bingo! My egg remained contained while it cooked. There was much rejoicing.

(I should note that you need a metal biscuit-cutter - the plastic ones float, and may not take kindly to being immersed in near-boiling water.)

Comments

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

If the white doesn't coagulate properly and spreads around a lot, then alas, your eggs aren't fresh enough. These days I only poach eggs on they day I buy them, and if they're from the FM stall which sells "today's" eggs, so much the better.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Interesting that no cookery books seem to mention that.

I'm afraid my eggs don't get allowed to be that precious, and they still taste OK - so they're going to have to live with the biscuit cutter. I will try poaching a brand new one when I next buy some, though.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, even slightly stale eggs cook quite differently. Try frying a stale one next to a fresh one: the white of the fresh one holds together, nice and smooth, while the stale one spreads out into a sad raggedy greyish blanket.

IMO, after the first day or two, eggs are no good for frying, boiling or poaching; and after a couple more days they're no good for scrambling or omeletting either.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Blimey. I really don't notice. I certainly eat quite old eggs, and haven't observed them being significantly worse.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I don't much like the taste of old eggs either: they taste kind of grey and rubbery to me. Generally I'm not fussy about food datedness, but for some reason stale eggs really get me. (Probably connected to some traumatic childhood incident.)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Eggs all taste like that to me!

...ah...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Hm. I had perfectly good scrambled eggs at the weekend and I really don't want to think about how long the eggs had been sitting around in the fridge...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Well, I did say "IMO" in the bit about goodness. Happy to believe that other people may prefer them in any of a range of different states of freshness (or lack thereof).

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

I'd put salt into the water rather than vinegar.
And I usually poach eggs in twos, so that I can check whether the one that's cracked carefully into the water stays together better than the one delivered at speed.
And I always forget which worked better, and have to do the same again the next time.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Clever! You don't need it now, but in case anyone else is interested, j4 bought me a Poach Pod which has made me very happy.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'd have been suspicious of those pods, because they seem to work on approximately the same principle as the egg-poaching-ladle-affair which, er, didn't work. However if you say they produce decent poached eggs I'll believe you :)

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

I'd had success with metal ladles but these are free-floating and much easier to clean.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I tend to crack the egg onto a plate first, which holds it together better, but still not perfectly round... more sort of oval. The biscuit cutter idea is good, especially as now you can have cute shaped eggs... if you're not horrified by the idea of cutesy food, that is.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I don't really like poached eggs, but now I have the urge to make one with my aeroplane-shaped biscuit cutter...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Much better idea: make aeroplane-shaped biscuits with it :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I should note that you need a metal biscuit-cutter - the plastic ones float, and may not take kindly to being immersed in near-boiling water.

This gives a clue as to what was maybe happening in the pre-biscuit-cutter days. Poaching eggs involves only an inch deep of water. If it makes a difference whether the cutter sinks or floats then the pan you're using is way too deep.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm only guessing about the plastic ones - I imagined the egg would sneak out under the bottom. I haven't tried it.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Those sneaky eggs! They can't be trusted, that's for sure.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Indeed! The only thing worse is perfidious bacon.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I have images of someone poaching bacon now.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

I can't help thinking about "perfidious albumen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfidious_Albion)". I should get out more.

[pm215]

You seem to have missed a golden opportunity to make a pun about 'perfidious albumin'...

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Not true. I have managed to poach eggs via the 'deep vortex of water' method. You need a lot of water - a medium saucepan full, and then you stir it vigorously until it dimples, then crack your (room temperature and fresh as possible) egg into the centre.

If you don't use enough water, you don't get the vortex which holds the egg together - so an inch is nowhere near enough ;-)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, that sounds like a lot of fun!

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Yes. I wasted a lot of eggs trying to get it to work, but it is fun when you finally get the trick ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong. I failed a couple of times and decided the method was rubbish. Maybe I should have persevered and learned the knack.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

I must admit I've never actually poached an egg, much as I enjoy them.

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

I can't make it work without an egg poacher.

[venta.livejournal.com]

What do you consider "an egg poacher" ? (I've heard people use that term to mean anything from a small metal ladle to a full-on independent electric appliance.)

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

Something like a small metal ladle that sits on the edge of a pan of water.

[dave [earth.li] (from livejournal.com)]

I have a (1970s and aluminum) device which is basically a small (inch high) lidded saucepan with a rack containing 4 little cups each of which is the right size for a single egg.

I suspect that the lid will help with your problem with the plastic ladle leaving it raw on top.

It's a bit like http://www.amazon.co.uk/BLACK-NON-STICK-4-CUP-EGG-POACHER/dp/B001DNEOY6

I've never tried the complicated ways of doing things. I'm with you on using eggs that are way too old.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

That's what we always used when I was growing up and it worked just great - I've often wondered about getting one. I have never successfully poached an egg since, for the general reasons as stated by venta

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

My mum used to do this in the microwave. I cannot remember how. We only had to clean egg off the ceiling once.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I exploded an egg in the microwave once. It was a soft boiled egg that I wanted to become hard boiled, so I microwaved it. Fortunately, I had had the foresight to peel it, stab it and cover it with a bowl because I rather expected it to happen. Tasted fine.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I spit-roasted an egg over a fire once (largely because someone said it couldn't be done).

The conclusion was that it can be done but it really, really shouldn't be. It was the nastiest egg I've ever eaten.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

The real problem is that poached eggs, like corned beedf, are not food. Please have a rather amusing logistical problem suitable for blogging with something nicer, like maybe biscuits or cheese.

Corned beed, jesus. That's not food either, but because it doesn't exist.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'll try, but the problem with cheese and biscuits is that they're actually both quite easy to operate.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Spaghetti?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I tend to find the problems are more with the eating than the cooking! And even then it's not a problem, it's just messy.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Now I fancy a corned beef and poached egg sandwich, but I don't have any corned beef in. I'm not sure I have any eggs, come to think of it. But, it has reminded me I need to make bread, so a win of sorts.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....Does this mean that Bat shaped poached eggs are going to become a speciality at yours ???

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

metame (who is in Germany and can't speak for himself right this moment because he's at a conference dinner) has mentioned clingfilm as an egg holding solution in the past.
I haven't tried it mostly because i'm not actually that fond of poached eggs. The other reason being that i'm sure I remember my mother producing perfectly fine poached eggs without using any of the above techniques. I have yet to manage this.

[(Anonymous)]

If it's such a clart, I'm glad I HATE poached eggs.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

I do it with a pan of slightly salted just off the boil water. I stire to create a slight vortex and then break the egg into that. Wait 4-5 mins and fish out.

Of course I have the luxury or advantage of using eggs I picked out of the nestbox the day before....

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Note to self.

Do not type after drinking last years special cider wot you made.

[davefish.livejournal.com]

On a related note, Yay! Whitbytime!!!

[lathany.livejournal.com]

What shape of biscuit cutter?

[venta.livejournal.com]

A plain round one. Despite suggestions elsewhere on this thread, I'm not really sure bats/aeroplanes/etc would really work terribly well.