Poached egg
A poached egg in a Salad Niçoise
|
|
| Main ingredients | Eggs |
|---|---|
 |
|
A poached egg is an egg that has been cooked by poaching, as opposed to simmering or boiling liquid. This method of preparation is favored for delicate foods that could be damaged by cooking at higher temperatures such as the boiling point of water.
The egg is cracked into a cup or bowl of any size, and then gently slid into a pan of water at approximately 75 Celsius and cooked until the egg white has mostly solidified, but the yolk remains soft. The 'perfect' poached egg has a runny yolk, with a hardening crust and no raw white remaining.
Eggs for poaching should be fresh, although newly laid eggs need to be more than 12 hours old; otherwise the white will separate from the yolk. Broken into water at the poaching temperature, the white will cling to the yolk, resulting in cooked egg white and runny yolk.
To prevent dispersion of the white of the egg, it can be strained beforehand, removing the parts of the white that are likely to disperse and creating a perfect, compact poached egg every time, with very little effort and without resorting to other risky methods such as vinegar.
Another method states that a small amount of vinegar may be added to the water. However, this technique is risky, as one may add too much vinegar into the water, resulting in a dry egg and an acidic taste. Stirring the water vigorously to create a vortex may also reduce dispersion.
Special pans, with several small cups, allow a number of eggs to be poached at the same time. These were a popular utensil for many years but the resultant rubbery texture and "bun-shaped" eggs they produced saw their popularity fade as TV shows and books - especially those on traditional French cooking as exemplified by Julia Child and Elizabeth David - revived interest in basic domestic cookery techniques. Other methods of producing poached eggs, such as using cling film to keep the egg perfectly formed have been documented.
Cooking time varies from about two and a half minutes if the eggs begin at room temperature, about three minutes if taken from a refrigerator. The exact time depends on the size of the egg, and other factors such as the design of the poaching apparatus. Dipping the eggs into cold water for a few seconds immediately after taking them out of the boiling water helps prevent over-cooking.
...
Wikipedia