Poached Egg
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the egg
Break the egg into a saucer.
Slip the egg into boiling water and cover.
Move to a cooler part of the fire and cook for 5 minutes until the white is firm and a film has formed over the yolk.
Finish and serve
Remove with a skimmer, drain, and trim off the rough edges.
Serve on a slice of toast and season to taste.
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
- Egg
- Egg white proteins set with heat, giving the poached egg its firm shape while the yolk stays soft.
- Toast
- Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the egg and soaks up its runny yolk.
The step that matters
Move to a cooler part of the fire and cook for 5 minutes. Egg white proteins set as they heat. If the water is at a hard rolling boil, it can tear the delicate white apart before it firms, so gentle heat gives a neat, intact 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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