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Eggs Poached

Poached eggs are cooked by gently sliding eggs into simmering salted water until whites set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Eggs Poached

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the water

  1. Fill a frying pan with boiling water to a depth of ½ inch and add a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the pan on the stove to keep the water boiling hot, but not boiling.

Poach the eggs

  1. Break each egg into a saucer one at a time, then gently slide them into the water.

  2. If the water does not cover the egg whites, add more boiling water with a large spoon.

  3. Once the whites are set, use a cake turner to carefully lift the eggs out.

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
Whites set around the heat while yolks stay soft, giving the poached egg its structure.

The step that matters

Keeping the water hot but not boiling. A gentle, steady heat lets egg whites coagulate evenly and hold their shape. A rolling boil tears the whites apart and scatters the egg.

“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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