Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the bread into pieces half an inch thick, and near the size of the egg when cooked.
Toast and butter the bread.
Fill the frying pan with boiling water, and add one teaspoon of salt.
Knock an egg against the side of a cup and break it.
Let each egg stand in its own cup.
Poach and serve
Keep the saucepan where the water will not boil fast.
Slip in one egg.
When the white is set, slip in another.
With a spoon, baste the egg with the boiling water until a white veil comes over the yolks.
When the eggs are cooked, remove them with a skimmer and place an egg on each piece of toast.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Eggs (in the method)
- The white sets around the yolk during poaching, holding the egg together in the water.
- Bread (in the method)
- Toasted and buttered, it provides a crisp, rich base that holds the poached egg.
- Butter (in the method)
- Adds richness and flavor to the toasted bread.
The step that matters
Keep the water below a boil. At a fast boil the water churns and tears the delicate egg white apart. A gentle simmer lets the white set around the yolk in a compact shape.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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