Skip to main content
Breakfast

Poached Eggs

Poached eggs are eggs cooked in boiling water until whites set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Poached Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the eggs

  1. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil in a frying pan and add 1 tablespoon of salt.

  2. Break each egg into a saucer, then carefully slide it into the boiling water.

  3. Use a spoon to splash a little water over the top of the egg to keep the white set.

  4. Cook until the whites are set, then remove with a perforated skimmer.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter and a sprinkle of pepper and salt 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
Set whites and yolks form the body of the dish when cooked gently in water.

The step that matters

Splashing water over the egg. Spooning hot water over the top helps the white near the yolk set quickly, so the egg keeps a neat shape instead of spreading out in the pan.

“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.

More poached eggs recipes

on Toast 48with Mushrooms 11in Milk 9with Celery Sauce 8with Cream 7with Ham 7 See all 276 →

You might also like

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes