Poached Eggs (Secret Revealed!)

The most favouritest thing in the World has to be Poached Eggs for Breakky! Am I right? Well, if I'm wrong you're probably missing out in life.

Sadly enough, not a lot of places do them well. Worse still, there are places that will use silicon poaching cups to do their eggs. It's a sad fact, but here is how to get your poached eggs just the way they should be. Free form, and gooey in the centre!


*From the Chef: I am a perfectionist when it comes to poaching. I like about 8L of water, plenty of salt and vinegar (this is widely debated by many, but I just use what works) and 2 coffee cups.  Using this recipe, success rate is around 90%, taking into account that not all eggs are created equal.


Take a heavy bottomed saucepan, of good depth, around 10-12 cm deep (8L). Fill it 3/4 full with hot water, and bring it to the boil with a good handful of salt. When the water has boiled, pour in 1/2 litre of white wine vinegar or plain white vinegar (the taste varies - the better the vinegar, the better the taste on the egg, but only use white vinegars. Not red wine or balsamic or malt....) Bring the water back to the boil, and then turn down the heat until you get a rolling boil, which means the surface of the water is not like a rapid waterfall, but more like semi-fast flowing stream. 

Then take your eggs from the fridge and crack one each into a coffee cup. Then holding the two cups together with your thumb and forefinger, hover the cups over the water like you’re about to pour them in, then do so, lifting the cups away from the pot in an emptying motion, making the whites trail the yolk to get the teardrop shape. 

(Coffee cups are a better vessel for delivery into the water as you are 95% guaranteed of a beautiful egg!)

Then let the eggs cook for about 2 mins. Using a holy spoon, gently lift one out and touch the surface, if it feels like marshmallow, take it out, if it feels like raw egg, don’t.  

Simple huh? It is exactly that. Next......