Posted on September 22, 2015 by Jenny Cromack

The Perfect Poached Egg

I could easily say that eggs are one of the greatest foods allowing a great variety of options one of my favourites has to be poached …. and indeed poached to perfection that to me is a nice solid white and a yoke that once popped oozes over the plate! Many people experience the egg breaking in the water and therefore cooking the yoke early and resulting in a mess.

So how can you get the perfect poached egg? Here are my top tips … I’m not saying I’m an expert as I also often have disasters but more often than not I can get the perfect poached egg.

Lucy’s Top Tips For The Perfect Poached Egg

1) Free Range Eggs
To me this is crucial and I certainly wouldn’t eat any egg that wasn’t free rage. You are lucky as these days you can get free range eggs from local supermarkets, butchers and greengrocers – you don’t have to live near a farm!
Free range is not only ethically good but the quality of the egg is so much better and you can tell the difference.

2) The Right Pan!

Ideally the pan should be a non-stick pan! This will stop the egg sticking!

3) Water Temperature & Depth

You want the water to be deep enough to just cover the eggs. The water needs to be boiled and then brought off the heat before you add the egg.
4) The Egg Entry

The water doesn’t want to be boiling (see above), crack the egg individually into the ladle and slowly lower into the water trying to keep it as close as possible. If you’re poaching more than one egg at a time make sure you space them out.

5) The Poaching Process

We are looking to poach the egg not boil it so make sure you have the pan removed from the heat, if it has just been boiling to will be warm enough to poach the egg to perfection without causing it to boil into a mess. The poaching process will only take a few minutes so watch carefully you want to wait until all the egg white has turned.

6) The Egg Removal

This can often be the critical partake sure your are very careful to remove the egg to ensure it stays in one peace. Using a spatular with holes is your best bet!

Finally, you should be able to easily pop the yoke to get a yummy runny yoke!