There are thousands of options for poaching eggs, but not all of them will give you that perfectly shaped and super-tasting one! There is a lot of talk about simmering them in plain water, adding salt, vinegar or even both. So, I was curious to see which of these techniques really work, and which ones are based on bad science (or bad eggs).
For this article, I spent countless hours testing all those techniques, used many kinds of eggs and shed a few tears so that you don’t have to! By the end of this post, you’ll be all set to impress your family and friends next time you want to treat them to a luxurious breakfast.
What’s a poached egg?
Most of you probably know eggs benedict. That beautiful runny yolk and firm but not rubbery egg white you will find underneath a layer of hollandaise sauce is a poached egg. It is cooked in lightly simmering water outside its shell just to the point where the still runny egg yolk gets trapped inside gently cooked egg white. It can form many kinds of shapes, depending on the cooking style, but the most recognisable and eye-catching one is the teardrop shape.
Poached eggs are tricky to make, but once you master them, the process is very satisfying. Also, there are countless ways you can enjoy them, from salads and pasta dishes to many other breakfast options. You can also make them ahead of time and just quickly reheat them when needed.
Essential equipment for poaching eggs
Here, I will focus on the equipment I used to prepare poached eggs the old-fashion way. Some items on the list are a must-have, while others are just convenient; there may be other utensils that you can substitute them for without affecting the result. Having said that, let’s see them all:
Fine mesh strainer: Before poaching the eggs, I like to use a very simple hack which removes the part of the egg white that has become looser and has separated from the firmer egg white through aging. By straining the eggs you will therefore prevent the part of the egg white from forming wispies while poaching eggs and avoid those weird shapes.
Ramekins: After straining the eggs, I found it makes your life easier to transfer them into ramekins, small bowl or even a cup. It gives you more control and prevents shells from potentially falling into the water.
Pot: Use a pot that allows for, at least, a depth of 10 cm of water, approximately 3 L of water. You will understand the importance of this detail later on.
Thermometer: Poaching is a delicate cooking method and keeping the temperature right is one of the most important steps. That is why I like to have a thermometer always at hand.
Slotted spoon: When the eggs are cooked, the best way to take them out of the water is by using a slotted spoon. It prevents damage to the gentle egg white and at the same time allows the excess water to drain. If you don’t have one, a bigger classic spoon will do the job just fine.
Bowl: Once the eggs are cooked, you want to stop the cooking process by shocking them with icy water. If you plan to serve your eggs straight from the pot, you don’t need to worry about this step.
How to poach eggs?
As I said, there are countless ways to make poached eggs, but after trying and testing different techniques, I’ve found that this method works best and will give you delicious poached eggs. So, let’s see which are the factors involved and how to get them all right!
The freshness of the eggs
If we just said that temperature is one of the most important factors of the process, freshness is probably the first one you should be paying attention to. You will get the best results with the freshest eggs possible. And I can’t stress that enough. If your eggs are more than ten days old, you will likely have trouble getting that perfectly poached egg. How to check the freshness of the egg?
If you live in the EU, always check for the “use by” date on top of the packaging. The longest “use by” date allowed is 28 days.
In the USA, there is something called the Julian date, which you can find on the side of the box. It shows as a three-coded number going from 001 to 365 (the lowest is 1st January). The higher the number is, the fresher the egg will be.
Why are older eggs not “good” for poaching?
Crack an egg into a plate and focus on the egg white. One part will be denser and firmer (holding to the egg yolk), while a portion of it will be more liquid and start leaking onto the plate. The bigger the liquid part is, the older the egg usually is. That runny egg white is why your poached egg won’t get that perfect shape.
As the egg ages, carbon dioxide and moisture are released through the pores and substituted by air. That makes the egg more alkaline (higher pH), and the change in pH, in turn, makes the existing bonds weaker.
As that egg white thins out, egg white strands called chalazae, which hold the egg yolk in the centre, also get weaker.
That is why when you poach older eggs, you get wispy fringes floating around and the eggs come out in weird shapes, with the egg yolk completely detaching from the egg white at times.
Straining the eggs
The method of straining the eggs before poaching them was first proposed by the famous British chef Heston Blumenthal, owner of The Fat Duck, a three-Michelin star restaurant in Bray, Berkshire. Straining the eggs before cooking allows them to shape perfectly when poaching, making it unnecessary to trim them later in the process. When ordering poached eggs at a restaurant, they often trim them with scissors before serving. I find the straining method more elegant to get a similar result without getting scissors involved.
The method is straightforward: you will only need a small fine mesh strainer and a bowl underneath. Leave the egg to sit in the strainer for 1-2 minutes. You can gently move the egg using a circular motion, but don’t overdo it since the process happens naturally.
While the famous chef uses the strainer to lower the egg into the water, I like to transfer it into a ramekin before that.
Depth of water & pot size
As poaching is quite a delicate technique, I find that every single detail matters. For the eggs to have space to move around without crashing into each other, the bigger the pot is, the better. Also, to get the desired teardrop shape, a pot with a depth of at least 10 cm of water will be perfect.
Creating a vortex
Creating a vortex with a spoon before lowering the egg into the water helps to shape the egg white around the yolk more evenly than without it. It means creating a whirlpool effect in your pot by making fast circular motions.
If you are making more than one egg in one go you can use the vortex method only for the first egg. Just gently flip the next ones into the water, trying to avoid them touching the other eggs. They won’t get that teardrop shape but they will be as delicious.
I would also recommend not to cook more than 3 eggs simultaneously so that they have enough space to move around and cook evenly.
Trying to create a vortex in a shallow pot will result in a flatter poached egg, but still a good tasting one.
The temperature of the water
As we all know, eggs are a great source of protein. These proteins are big molecules made up of amino acids which are twisted and folded into various three-dimensional shapes. When proteins are heated up, the high temperature breaks those weak bonds and leads to changes in the structure, called denaturation. As the surrounding water gets pressed out, proteins start forming bonds among themselves; basically, they coagulate, and the egg white turns from clear into white. The more bonds they form, the stiffer the egg white will be. That’s why when overcooking the poached egg, you will get more of a rubbery egg white than the delicate, firm one we are searching for.
To reach that, the water shouldn’t at any point be boiling. We are searching for a temperature under the boiling point, and I got the best results by keeping it around 88 °C. That’s why I find the use of a thermometer very welcoming in this case, but as long as you keep your water at a very light simmer, you are on the right path. How will you recognise a very light simmer? You will see tiny bubbles forming on the bottom and lifting up but no big bubbles reaching the surface.
Should you add anything to the poaching water?
I’ve gone through so many recipes circling the internet, and I found that the biggest confusion arises from the question “should you add anything to the water when poaching eggs?”. That’s why I’ve tried all the possible options, from poaching eggs in plain water to adding vinegar, salt or both of them together.
For all four possible scenarios, I’ve used eggs with the same expiration date, and I got the freshest eggs available in the supermarket at that point. They were three weeks away from the “best by” date, so seven days old. Eggs were first strained, then transferred into ramekins and added to the water using the vortex method. What I was curious about was how different cooking conditions affect the shape of the egg, the cooking time and the resulting taste. I’ve repeated each scenario three times in order to be thorough and able to draw some conclusions. So, let’s see what the experiment revealed!
Poaching eggs in plain water
What I’ve seen when poaching eggs in just water is that many wispies started floating around even though the eggs were strained.
This method generally produced quite a lot of waste with not such great results. Also, I think this method works with really fresh eggs, but for week-old ones, it seems like a not-so-viable option.
Result: Poaching eggs in plain water produced much more wispies floating around, resulting in a smaller poached egg. The egg was touching the bottom while poaching, which could lead to uneven cooking.
Taste: Poaching the egg in plain water gave me a slightly bland result.
Adding vinegar to the poaching water (2 tbsp/ 3 L water)
A few seconds after dropping the egg into the vortex, you can see how the egg white starts cooking on the bottom of the pot and perfectly surrounding the egg yolk.
The change in pH caused by the addition of vinegar speeds up the denaturation of protein, helping the egg white form faster without allowing it to disperse into the water. What I’ve seen is that it starts floating on the surface, which helps the egg cook more evenly, making it less likely to overcook.
Result: With the addition of vinegar, no wispies were created, and the result was a perfect teardrop-like shape. While cooking, the egg was floating on the surface, making it less likely to overcook since it was not in contact with the pot and the temperature is higher at the bottom.
Taste: This small amount of vinegar definitely does not affect the taste of the poached egg in a negative way. I find that it somewhat enhanced the natural egg white taste.
Adding salt to the poaching water (2 tsp/ 3 L water)
When adding salt to the water, at the beginning it looks like the previous tryout with vinegar. Salt is another factor that can influence the denaturation of protein, and it does so by taking off the surface layer of water attached to the protein. As a result, the egg cooked faster than in the case of plain water and the vinegar addition, but the egg white had a bit more of a rubbery texture. The egg poached with salt didn’t get a nice teardrop-like shape but was more of a fried egg one since it was sitting at the bottom for the majority of the cooking time.
Result: Salt sped up the poaching time but gave a poached egg shaped more like a fried egg. The egg white had a more rubbery texture when compared to the first two methods.
Taste: I found that the egg was more seasoned, but I didn’t find it very pleasing since I like that delicate poached egg flavour.
Adding salt and vinegar to the poaching water (2 tsp + 2 tbsp/ 3 L water)
Even though I’ve seen a lot of recipes mentioning the addition of salt and vinegar to speed up the coagulation of protein, I didn’t see it happening. The egg needed a longer cooking time, and the texture of the egg white was a bit slimy. I definitely wasn’t satisfied with the result visually, nor taste-wise.
Result: When adding salt and vinegar to the poaching water, I got poached eggs of inconsistent shapes and a little bit more slimy texture. The addition made the cooking time longer but the egg was floating while cooking, as we’ve seen was the case when adding only vinegar.
Taste: Taste-wise this was the egg I like the least of all the four options.
I can definitely say my favourite way would be the one where you add only vinegar to the poaching water. The method gave a consistently shaped poached egg with amazing texture and taste. The floating of the egg ensured even cooking and minimised the possibility of overcooking if the temperature was controlled. This test has also shown that it works for eggs that are not exactly laid that same morning, which is also very often not the case for most of us.
For a perfectly poached egg with a teardrop-like shape adding vinegar is, in my experience, the safest and best way to go.
How long to poach eggs for?
The cooking time will greatly depend on the size of the egg and the poaching temperature, but to give you general guidance, 3,5 minutes is the average I’m aiming for. As we’ve seen with the addition of salt, that timing is a bit shorter, only 2,5 minutes for medium-sized eggs.
Can you prepare poached eggs ahead of time?
Since the classic way of preparing poached eggs may not be an option you will choose for a busy weekday breakfast; you can make poached eggs ahead of time, to be precise 2-3 days ahead.
After the eggs are poached, refresh them in a bowl of icy water. It takes only a minute or two for the egg to stop cooking. Transfer the eggs into an airtight container filled with water and keep them inside your fridge.
When you want to use them, reheat them by placing them in hot water for one to two minutes until warmed through.
Next time you plan to make poached eggs, you can follow this step-by-step guide below, and I assure you will enjoy your perfectly poached eggs!
- Make sure you purchased the freshest eggs possible, ideally less than a week old.
- Use a pot of water, ideally with a depth of water of 10-15 cm and heat it up to a light simmer.
- Crack one egg at a time into a fine mash strainer over a small bowl. Wait for 1-2 minutes for the liquid egg white to strain into the bowl.
- Transfer the egg into a ramekin and repeat the same process for as many eggs as you plan to do. I would advise you to cook simultaneously no more than 3 eggs.
- When the water has reached its boiling point, lower down the heat, and add 2 tablespoons or 30 ml of vinegar for 3 L of water. Stir it in and wait for the temperature to reach around 88 °C.
- Using a spoon, create a vortex and gently flip the first egg in the middle of the swirl. If cooking more eggs, try to get them in the pot as fast as possible to ensure even cooking of all of them.
- Don’t forget to set the timer for 3,5 minutes.
- Don’t touch the eggs the first minute of cooking until they form. When you see that their edges are formed you can gently move them around from time to time to ensure more even cooking.
- Check that the temperature is stable at 88 °C.
- By the end of the cooking process, you can gently lift them up with a slotted spoon and check the firmness of the egg white. You should be able to apply a bit of pressure without the egg white breaking up.
- Take them out and place them in a bowl filled with icy water to stop the cooking. Spoon them out after a minute or so and drain on a piece of kitchen towel.
- Right before serving your poached eggs, reheat them in a bowl of hot water for 1-2 minutes until warmed through. Season with freshly ground pepper, lemon or lime zest and enjoy!
I hope this guide provides you with all the necessary information to start the journey of poaching eggs the “classic” way safely. Don’t forget that the freshness of your eggs is the most crucial part that will seal the fate of your dish. If you don’t have fresh eggs I’d advise you to make some scrambled eggs or even a nice omelette; rather than stress about poaching them. Not having the right ones really is a recipe for disaster!
Poaching eggs is a delicate process but yields such a satisfying result that is worth every effort!
