You are, of course, referring to the spherical poached eggs seen at fashionable cafes. They're made by lining a small bowl with a sheet of plastic film, brushing it with oil, adding a knob of butter, cracking in an egg, seasoning with salt and pepper, then gathering up the edges and tying in a tight knot.
"Vinegar is an inherently acidic material, so if we add a few drops of vinegar into that boiling water that is going to increase the rate of denaturing and it's going to make that happen faster and help the poached egg hold its shape better."
Half-fill a wide pan with boiling salted water, and bring it to a light simmer over a medium heat. Crack one of the eggs into a cup and gently pour it into the water in one fluid movement. Repeat with the rest of the eggs. You'll see them begin to cook immediately – don't worry if the edges look a little scruffy.
The swirling water will help prevent the white from "feathering," or spreading out in the pan. Let it poach: Turn off the heat, cover the pan and set your timer for 5 minutes. Don't peek, poke, stir or accost the egg in any way.
As it turns out, you have to add quite a bit of vinegar to have any vinegar taste transfer to the egg. I found that adding one tablespoon of a light colored vinegar didn't flavor the egg but it did help to keep the egg white together.
3Beer & Butter. Beer poached eggs work best with dark and malty beers like a porter or stout. You can also try using a very strong ale.
The main reason for adding vinegar to the water when poaching eggs is because the acid in the vinegar helps to coagulate the whites in the egg more quickly resulting in them cooking quicker as well.
Use a deep, large pan to poach an egg. Fill it with plenty of water and add a pinch of salt and a dash of white wine vinegar. This will help set the egg.
You can poach an egg without vinegar by substituting with lemon Juice! It might give your egg a slight lemony flavor, but lemon juice serves the same purpose as vinegar when poaching eggs.
If the water is hot enough (near boiling), salt increases the density of the cooking liquid just enough to make the egg bob to the surface when it's about perfectly done. While you can certainly poach eggs without the salt and vinegar, they'll want to sit on the bottom of the pan and thus cook unevenly.
Bring a medium pot of water to a simmer, then reduce heat until it is barely quivering. It should register 180 to 190°F (82 to 88°C) on an instant-read thermometer. Carefully break 1 egg into a small bowl, then tip into a fine-mesh strainer.
A really soft poached egg should take around 2 minutes and a soft-to-firm one will need 4 minutes (it depends on the size of the egg and whether you're using it straight from the fridge). To check if it's done, carefully remove your egg from the pan with a slotted spoon and give it a gentle prod with a teaspoon.
Oxo Good Grips egg poacher
Made from heat-resistant silicone, its funnel guides the cracked egg through a central hole and into the water to prevent the yolk from breaking. Its second section contains the egg white whilst allowing water to flow evenly around the whole egg as it cooks.
There are three basic methods for poaching; shallow, submerge, or deep-poaching. Butter-poaching and oil-poaching are variations of deep-poaching.
The right water temperature is key to poached egg success. Water not hot enough = eggs dissolve into water before they set = murky pot of milky water. Boiling too rapidly = egg jiggles around too much and causes the whites to disintegrate.