To Poach Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use eggs that are a couple of days old for best results.
Boil water in a kettle and strain it through a clean cloth into a stewpan until half full.
Poach and serve
Break an egg into a cup and gently slip it into the hot water.
Let the egg sit until the white is set, then place the stewpan on moderate heat.
Once the water boils again, the egg is ready.
Use a slotted spoon to lift the egg and place it neatly on a piece of toast.
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
- The white's proteins set with heat, giving the egg its firm shape and holding the yolk.
The step that matters
Slipping the egg into the hot water. Lowering the egg gently into hot water lets the white coagulate around the yolk before it spreads. Dropping it in harshly or into boiling water disperses the white, so letting it set first keeps the egg compact.
“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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