The Independent Woman and The Poached Egg

[OrangeFlowersAreLovely]

Lived on my own for 16 years. Happily single. Own house. Own car. Own money. Own mind.

You come to my house... I'll cook you anything. Roast dinner, curry, spaghetti bolognaise, chilli, omelette. Anything you want.

For the life of me I cannot do a poached egg. I've asked other people, I've watched endless videos on YouTube, I've googled it. Yesterday I asked a B&B owner who gave me new advice... I got hopeful. Today I've wasted four eggs before 8.30am.

I fucking give up.

Ha ha it’s the one thing I CAN cook although they look pretty.

The thing with poached eggs is that they need to be VERY FRESH EGGS.
I keep hens, and it is pretty impossible to mess up poaching a newly laid egg.

White wine vinegar in the water, crack the egg into a dish first and pour into slowly swirling water. The dish was the 'aahhh' moment for me.

Have you tried the silicone poaching 'pods'? Much easier, just a tiny bit of oil in the bottom, crack the egg in, float it on boiling water with a lid on the pan then after about 5 mins (depending on how set you like it) get the pod out of the water and slide the egg out with a spoon, perfect poached egg

I was like this for ages! Tried all the "tips and tricks", vinegar, vortex etc....nothing worked and I'd end up with egg soup.

These days I put about. two inches of water in a sauce pan, boil, reduce to a very slight simmer. Eggs cracked into a ramekin (or a saved Gu pot), gently tip into water and leave until the white is set. 2 minutes at most I find. Perfect!

I can only do one at a time though.

What's going wrong op? Are you being too perfectionist (they don't need to be chef perfect). Hot water, dash of vinegar possibly, get a swirl going if you want, crack in very fresh eggs, lowish simmer, I fish them out with a spaghetti spoon because it drains. I'm eating three now, one broke, the other two were photogenic.

And now I want perfectly poached eggs for breakfast

I tried all the tips about water temp, swirling, vinegar etc but I only got it right when I started cracking the eggs into a ramekin and adding it to the water from there - so not so much height and more slowly
Game changer

What @Runningintolife said. I don't really get the angst on this...and I don't agree with the eggs needing to be super fresh either. Boiling water, splash of vinegar worcestershire sauce, crack egg in, leave for a couple of minutes, slotted spoon to retrieve.

Freshness of eggs is the biggest help. What's the issue, are you breaking the yolks or over cooking? If the whites are messy then I often cut off the scraggly bits and pretend it never happened

Have you tried the cling film method? Not the most environmentally friendly, but a pretty failsafe method. Here's a video, I've not needed the oil tbh but it doesn't hurt to add it:

If you're storing eggs in the fridge that could also be a contributor

I messed one up so much yesterday that the yolk separated from the white, so was just a floating yellow ball being chased by a ghost in the pan. I still put it on my toast but it looked pretty tragic.

Yolk wasn't runny either.

Was a bad day.

DH loves poached eggs but lost his mind trying to poach eggs to no avail. We now have an electric poacher which is fantastic and used every morning. Great for boiled eggs too.

Do you turn the heat off? Water must be off the boil

egg fresh

…. But yeah I can’t do it either 😂

I tried everything and gave it one more crack (see what I did there?) before I gave up.

In a little corner of the internet I found a French chef’s no fail poached egg trick. I was skeptical but I gave it a go.

The trick is to crack the egg into a sieve first and all of the excess liquid that becomes egg soup drains away so you’re left with pristine white and the yolk. Then add to a pan of salted simmering water - no whirling needed because the liquid white is gone, just the jelly white is left. Works every time.

I have nothing for you but sympathy OP.

I am you.

Can make some amazing food. Have completely given up with poached eggs.

Does no one use a poaching pan now? It's much easier.

I've put loads of water in the pan, then just a bit, cracked it in, used a dish, used a bowl, used this, used that, dropped it in high, dropped it in low, swirled the water, not swirled it, used vinegar, used nothing, waited til the water has boiled, not waited. I don't have anymore faith or energy. I have failed. No poached egg for me. Just white eggy water with a sad, pathetic looking yellow lump at the bottom.

FUCK IT.

www.amazon.co.uk/Poachies-poaching-Bags-13-5-Pack/dp/B017RKSFAM/ref=mp_s_a_1_14_sspa?crid=2ZWLWOIM5GDYL&keywords=egg+poachers+filter&qid=1663401754&sprefix=egg+poachers+filtrr%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-14-spons&psc=1

coffee filters do the same job, except agh a bit more like to “fall out”

Or you could just buy one of these - £5.50 from Asda. Jesus! Talk about make life difficult...

Scrambled is nice OP 😁

I've never made a poached egg that didn't look like a horrible mistake. Tried everything.

We had this issue too but dh cracked it (pun intended) by using the James Martin method. He now puts the eggs into greased cling film to poach them.

I use the silicon pods mentioned by a PP. Must have a lid on the pan - I've got a pan with a glass lid.
My parents always had an egg poaching pan like the one shown in the picture posted by Swanrot.

I have also failed using all other methods.

Exactly this. This dish is a game changer.