Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select perfectly fresh eggs.
Poach the eggs
Break an egg into a saucer and slide it quickly into boiling water.
Pull the pan to the side of the stove where the water will not boil.
Continue dropping in the eggs until you have the desired number.
Baste the water over the yolk with a spoon until it is completely covered.
Serve
Lift each egg with a skimmer, trim off the edges, and place on a piece of buttered toast.
Make the toast quickly and roll the crust in boiling water at the last moment.
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 yolk in hot water, giving the egg its shape and structure.
- Toast
- Provides a firm base that holds the egg and soaks up the runny yolk.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and browns lightly on the toast for flavour.
The step that matters
Sliding the egg into water that is not fully boiling. Proteins in the white set quickly when they meet hot water, so a gentle, quick slide keeps the white compact around the yolk. Rough water or a hard boil breaks the white apart.
“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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