How To Poach an Egg
How To Poach an Egg. Poached eggs are awesome! It’s a less primal way to enjoying all the benefits of eggs. Raw eggs contain strong enzyme inhibitors in the yolk membrane, which requires extra enzymes from the pancreas to digest. Cooking destroys these enzyme inhibitors. But once cooked, the delicate fats and nutrients like biotin in the yolk can be destroyed. One way around this is to poke a tiny hole in the yolk and suck out the contents into your mouth, leaving the yolk sac behind.
Here’s How To Poach An Egg:
1. Use the freshest eggs possible. It will still work (meaning, they will still poach) with less-fresh eggs but they won’t look as pretty. Fresher egg whites hold their shape better when poaching, making prettier, more compact and round poached eggs. Use old eggs and you’ll end up with a weird spider-web effect in your poach. Tastes fine, yes, just ugly.
2. Acidify your water. I like using a little plain white vinegar, but lemon juice is fine, too. A little acid goes a long way in helping those egg proteins coagulate into a solid, instead of running all over like an amoeba.
3. Have your water just below a simmer. Use a thermometer if you have one to maintain it around 200º F. Guestimate is fine!
4. NEXT— Swirl the water. Don’t make a crazy whirlpool in your pot. Just give the water a turn, slip in your egg, and use a rubber spatula to help shape and form the egg as it cooks.
5. Crack the egg into a small bowl first. This is to avoid plopping the egg in and splashing hot water all up all over you, as well as to help keep your yolk from breaking with said “plop”. Just lower the bowl close to the water and slide it on in all easy-like.
6. Depending on how cooked you like your yolks, let a large egg cook at around 200º F for 3 minutes and up to 7 minutes max.
7. Cold water bath! Have a bowl of cold water ready. Gently scoop the egg up and place in bath of cold water. You can prepare these in advance and store in ‘frig overnight if you’re planning on hosting a brunch, or don’t want to cook every (who has time for that?!!!)
8. Enjoy!
PS: I gotta admit, my first few attempts were not too pretty looking!