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Poached Eggs

Poached eggs are cooked by gently simmering eggs in water with vinegar and salt, served on toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Poached Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a flat saucepan, combine water, vinegar, and salt.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Break the eggs into the boiling water and poach for 2-3 minutes.

  4. Lift the eggs out with a skimmer and serve on toast.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Eggs (in the method)
Set in the hot liquid, forming a tender, rounded poached shape.
Vinegar
Acidity helps the egg white coagulate more neatly around the yolk.

The step that matters

Breaking the eggs into the boiling water. Egg white begins setting almost on contact, so eggs that are dropped in from a height or added to water that is not simmering can spread and tear. Gentle lowering keeps the white close to the yolk while it sets.

“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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