To make the best possible poached eggs, bring the eggs to room temperature before poaching. This is because cold eggs will lower the temperature of the water and slow the cooking process.
Here's a secret: When poaching eggs, you don't have to cook them to-order. In fact, you can poach them up to five days in advance with no loss in quality. Not only that, but it takes just 2 minutes and zero skill to take those eggs from fridge-cold to liquid-yolk-ready-to-serve once brunch begins.
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.
Your ultimate, optimal temperature for poaching is between 180°F and 185°F but the cold eggs are going to drop the water temp, so start high. Gently crack one fresh egg into a fine mesh sieve over a small bowl and let sit for one minute.
When poaching an egg, it is recommended you use fresh eggs because of the “yolk quality”. In a fresh egg, the yolk sits up high, and the white is thick and closely surrounds the yolk. An older egg has a flat yolk that breaks easily, and a thin, watery white.
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.
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.
Break cold egg into small dish or saucer. Holding dish just above simmering water, gently slip egg into water. Repeat for remaining eggs. Cook in barely simmering water until white is set and yolk is cooked as desired, 3 to 5 minutes.
Follow this tip: Have a timer ready to go (and remember to set it!) once the eggs go into the water. Cook 2 minutes for runny eggs, 3 minutes for a set white with a runny yolk, and 4 minutes for a more well-done egg with a yolk that's still soft.
Optimal poaching temperature
The most important thing is maintaining a low and steady water temperature between 180 and 190°F (82 and 88°C). I recommend using an instant-read thermometer. This range should provide simmering water with no bubbles or just a few breaking the surface.
Add your aromatics, salt, oil, or butter to the pot or pan followed by the poaching liquid. It's best to use a pan that is wide enough for the ingredient to lay comfortably on the surface. Make sure to place a lid on top of the pot to allow the hot steam to thoroughly cook the ingredient.
Place the poacher cups over the pan of boiling water (water should not touch the bottoms of the cups), and reduce the heat to simmering. Break an egg into a small dish. Carefully slide it into a poacher cup.
The most common way to poach an egg is by creating a vortex in the water. You achieve this by stirring the water with a spoon in a vigorous circle once it is lightly simmering. All you do at this point is drop in the egg and wait for it to cook.
If your water is too hot (as in, boiling vigorously), the yolk and white might separate, leaving you with a poached egg that's not only ugly, but also unevenly cooked.
Bring your eggs to room temperature before boiling. If the eggs are too cold, the shells may crack during cooking.
Room temperature eggs are good for baking because they blend more evenly in batters and help the dough rise more easily than cold eggs straight out of the fridge. Cold eggs, on the other hand, can result in lumpy batter, a stodgy texture, and require longer baking times — and no one wants that!
The only problem with this approach, though, is even if you lower the eggs as gently as possible into the boiling water, they can easily crack. This is because cold eggs are shocked by the extra-hot water. To prevent this, remove your eggs from the refrigerator before you start bringing a pot of water to a boil.
We've all seen poached eggs with almost no egg white and feathery white foam where the egg white should be. This is because the egg white has mixed with the hot water before setting. Reduce turbulence in the water to prevent the egg white from mixing with the water.
"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."
Add one tablespoon of light-colored vinegar to the pot and stir to create a vortex. Pour the ramekin with the egg into the middle of the vortex and set a timer for 3 minutes. Once the egg is done, use a slotted spoon to remove the poached egg.
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.