If you like the taste of eggs, poached eggs are the best. Poaching gently simmers food in hot liquid, usually water, but you can slo use milk, soup stock or wine, (try eggs poached in red wine) and is perfect for delicate foods, like fish, poultry or eggs that easily fall apart or dry out.
Poached eggs might just look like a fancy-schmancy version of eggs fried sunny side up, but the taste is in a whole other league. The white of the egg is much thinner, more uniform in texture, firmer and more delicious.
But, when looking into how to make poached eggs you come across a lot of conflicting information. Some people say the best way is to only use the freshest eggs you can get, same day fresh if possible. Not that practical for the average home kitchen.
Others will tell how to paoch eggs, and that the secret is to add a teaspoon of vinegar to the water you poach them in. The theory is that the vinegar makes the water pH more acidic, lowering the surface tension of the water, reducing stress on the egg white albumin, which is the part of the egg that heats up fastest, thereby reducing thermal pressure differentials and poaching the egg more evenly. The vinegar supposedly also firms up the albumin in the egg white, making it easier for it to hold together the yolk.
Then there are the adherents of the Vortex method, who advocate using a subtle swirling motion of a shallow frying pan to create a vortex of circular water pressure to drop the egg into, thus using the water pressure the push the egg together until the outer edges set. This takes a lot of practice and possibly three hands.
There are other theories and methods as well, (one handy way is to use the Poach Pod) but the basic aim of all these techniques is to force the egg and yolk to stay together until cooked, without ending up an incoherent mess. The most practical and bullet proof way to poach eggs is the following:
Easy Poached Eggs
1. Take a small prep bowl, like a ramekin, mise cup or small breakfast bowl, and cover the inside of it with plastic cling wrap/saran wrap. Use enough to leave two or three inches around the outside of the bowl, while pushing the wrap tightly down into the bowl so it is lined.
2. Crack the egg into the bowl and pull up the outer edges of the wrap to make a purse with the egg carried inside.
3. Tie the end of the purse to a wooden spoon handle, using some string or the pouch itself. (alternate method is to tie the end of the pouch and put it in the water and fish it out after cooking with a big spoon or ladle)
4. Lower the egg into boiling water. Mold the shape of the egg as it cooks by manipulating the plastic wrap at the tied end for an even set. Poach for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and unwrap. Serve and enjoy poached egg perfection.
An alternate method is to tie the end of the pouch and let it float in the water, then fish it out after cooking with a big spoon or ladle, although with this you are not able to control the shape as well.
Best Poached Egg Recipe Ideas:
Poached Egg with Spinach and Ricotta from Williams-Sonoma
Golden Polenta and Egg with Mustard Sauce at EatingWell.com
Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon and Chive