The perfect poached egg. Tender whites around a warm liquid yolk that oozes out like
gold when you cut into it. They're an essential part of Eggs Benedict, they can turn any salad
into a meal, or any vegetable into brunch.
The problem is, they're really tough to make right. So you've probably read all the tricks
and know all the secrets: Add vinegar to your water. Add salt to your water. Don't add salt
to your water. Stir a vortex into the water. Wrap your eggs in plastic wrap. And guess
what? None of them really work.
After years of testing, I've only come across one method that works every single time, and
all it requires are two things.
The first is: a really fresh egg. Fresh eggs have tighter whites and yolks that help them
retain their shape better as they cook.
There are two ways to tell how fresh an egg is. The first is to check something called
the Julian date. As long as it's packed in the US, every carton of eggs has a number
between 000 and 365 on it. And that number corresponds to the day on which the egg was
cleaned and packaged.
So a number of 000 would mean January 1st, 003 would be January 4th, and so on.
All you really need to know is that the higher that number, the fresher the egg.
You can also tell how fresh an egg is by carefully putting it into a cup of water. As an egg
ages, the air pocket in the fat end is going to get bigger and bigger, which will make
the egg stand upright or sometimes even float.
A really fresh egg will sink and lie flat on its back like this.
Once you've got your fresh egg, the second tool you need is something I saw first suggested
by British chef Heston Blumenthal:
A fine mesh strainer.
You see, no matter how fresh your eggs are, there is always going to be some amount of
liquid white.
It's this excess white that causes misshapen eggs -- you know those really ugly ones with
the whispy white floaters that completely ruin your brunch.
To get rid of them, we're going to transfer our eggs to a fine mesh strainer, and gently
swirl it around until all the excess white is drained away.
What you're left with is a nice, tight egg.
Even better is that the strainer is actually the ideal tool for lowering the egg into the
water. What I've got here is a pot of water with water at 180°F, which is just about
the temperature that the water is quivering but not quite simmering yet. All I am going
to do is gently lower the strainer with the egg into the water, move it back and forth
a little bit to make sure the egg isn't stuck, and then carefully roll the egg out.
Just like a kid, it's these early formative stages of a poached egg's life that are going
to determine how it turns out in the end. Using the round-bottomed strainer and this
rolling motion is going to help ensure that you'll get a nice, tight poached egg that's,
well, that's egg shaped.
If you want to cook multiple eggs, just make sure that you have them cracked into separate
dishes and ready to go.
Once they're in the water, your only job is to keep them moving around, flipping them
from time to time with a slotted spoon, so that they cook evenly.
After about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes, this is what you've got.
You can even cook them ahead of time and store them submerged in cold water in the fridge
for up to a few days. To reheat them, just transfer them to a bowl of hot water for a
few minutes just before serving.
Food Lab, signing out.