Why it works: Egg and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Poached Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Poach
Fill a medium-sized saucepan with water and add vinegar.
Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.
Break in 3 eggs and cover the saucepan.
Cook for 1.5 minutes, then check with a slotted spoon.
Remove the eggs, trim them, and place them in a bowl of cold water.
Repeat until you have the desired number of eggs.
Hold and serve
About 30 minutes before serving, warm the eggs gently by the side of the fire.
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
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- The proteins in the whites set in hot water, giving the poached egg its shape and body.
- Vinegar
- Its acidity helps the egg whites set more quickly and hold together in the water.
The step that matters
Cook for 1.5 minutes, then check with a slotted spoon. Egg whites set quickly in hot water while yolks stay runny. Cooking too long firms the yolk and can make the white rubbery, so check the egg early and remove it once the white is set.
“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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