Why can't everyone poach eggs?

[winteroversummer]

You often hear people say that they can't do poached eggs. Why? I dont understand. There's lots that I can't do in a kitchen but poaching an egg is literally cracking it into swirling water, isn't it? Just cracking an egg. What about it do people find hard? Why does my husband needs six eggs to go wrong before getting one good poached egg?

I can't. I end up with a yolk. I have tried your method (and a million other methods). I love poached eggs too

A pan of boiling water, stick a spoon in and swirl it round, then crack the egg in and wait a couple of mins and scoop it out. I bet you'll be able to do it tomorrow morning for brekkie

You’re more talented than you give yourself credit for. I’m a pretty good cook, I make exceptional egg things, but I can’t reliably poach an egg. DH can so he does them here.

I make the hollandaise.

I don’t understand why some people can’t make a decent sponge cake. That’s much easier than poaching eggs.

I prefer the still water method rather than swirling

If the white flies away and you're left with more or less just the yolk, the egg is too old to poach properly.
If you break it into a saucer first you can see if the white is too watery and spreads out too much, or if it holds together, with a firmer/higher/plumper bit surrounding the yolk. If it's more like the former just fry it instead..

Definitely still water.
Swirling and the white goes everywhere and all stringy

Poaching eggs at home is impossible. I always order eggs poached when I'm out for breakfast as it's the only time I can have them made properly.

I don't swirl, but other than that, yeah poaching is easy.

I'm the same with Yorkshire Puddings. So many people struggle. I do it the way my granny taught me, but it's pretty much like most online recipes- I'm like, google a Yorkshire's recipe, and like, do that.

BUT having said all ^that, I cannot cook rice. At all. Not even with a rice cooker.

I don't like poached eggs so I've never tried making them!

I make perfect poached eggs almost every time but people always seem surprised so I guess some must struggle with it but I'm unsure why it's easy.

Because the eggs are too old. Properly fresh eggs just stay together. No fancy methods, just get hot but not boiling water and a fresh egg.

I poach my eggs in a small frying pan of boiling water. I don't swirl it.
But TBH now that we no longer keep chickens and I have to buy eggs the quality (and I buy posh eggs!) is not the same as the eggs from our old girls

Boil water, put around 5ml of vinegar/lemon juice/ white wine in to acidify the water ( no salt at all), crack egg into a small sieve to get rid of excess albumen, transfer egg to pot of boiling water( swirl the water first), then entry poach until egg is cooked to your liking (2-3 mins for me). Transfer to piece of buttered toast. Job done!

Why people swirl the water for a poached egg is a mystery to me. Keep the water still, at a very gentle simmer. Works every time.

Water needs to swirl to keep the egg white together.

I've never understood poached eggs. Isn't it just a messy way of boiling an egg? Far simpler to boil and take the shell off.

We have a silicone poacher DP found in Poundland. Game changer. Crack egg into mould, add mould to boiling water and wait 2-3mins. Perfect poached eggs every time. I've never managed to do it properly by dropping it directly into hot water, i always end up loosing half the whites.

I just end up with a wet eggy mess 😂

@Mum2jenny

Water needs to swirl to keep the egg white together.

Whenever I've tried that, it seems to spread out through centrifugal force or something. I have better luck with still water. Poaching more than 2 (at a push) is where it gets tricky though. DH can't do it (apparently 🤔).

You can buy wee pouches for poaching eggs, pretty failsafe. But yes, the fresher the egg, the better..

@EagleOrIgel

I've never understood poached eggs. Isn't it just a messy way of boiling an egg? Far simpler to boil and take the shell off.

Weirdly, they do taste completely different. I don't know why.

Dh make them in a deepish frying pan. Splosh of vinegar in the water. No swirling required

I’ve a silicon poacher too, but it doesn’t give very good results. I find using just simmering water with a bit of acid much better.

if you swirl you get stringy white all over the place.
If you don't swirl it still spreads out too much.

I love a good poached egg, but it always ends up too watery.

We keep chickens so lovely fresh eggs too.

I now fry - tiny bit of oil, and put a lid on the frying pan. Top of egg steams, it is like a cross between poach and fry and less oily.

On the other hand I can whistle up a sponge, yorkshires and rice.

Top trick if your egg looks all scraggly and sad - top with grated cheese. Heavenly!