The Perfect Poached Egg

Eggy delight - Dec 2011

Guest post from Jar Head:

Hello, guest blogger here! I've been asked to write about making the perfect poached egg. I think Jesus summed it up best when he stated "There is nothing more holy, more sacred or more heavenly then a perfect poached egg" [citation needed].

But achieving such a result is by no means simple. Dump the eggs into the water too harshly and you get a mess, remove them too soon and you get runny, messy whites. Pull your egg out too late and you end up with a hard yolk - sacrilegious! It can literally drive one mad - it is rumoured that Dante's failure to achieve this perfection what ultimately lead to his vision of hell. Thankfully it also resulted in the Divine Comedy.

What you need:

Fresh eggs - remove from fridge for about 30 min.
Water
Vinegar

Get a pot of water to a good rolling boil. Remove pot from heat and add in about 1-2 TBSP of vinegar and cover. This keeps the whites of the egg together. Place the pot back onto the hot burner, but turn heat off.

Crack your egg into a small bowl
or cup - an espresso cup works best for this. Tip the cup into the water allowing some of the hot water to flow into the cup. After about 10 seconds slowly tip the egg into the bath - it should stay together in a small ball.

Hot sauce, taters eggs and salad
 brunch of champions

Cover and let sit for 3 min. Once the time is up check the whites - the should be opaque and slightly firm - check the last egg that was added. The key here is to have everything else done (toast etc) when the 3 min is up - you want to be able to serve them immediately.

Simplest is best - try over toast or hashbrowns with some salt, pepper and a little olive oil.