Poaching eggs - tips

[Slarti]

And scrambled is about the only way I don't like eggs. And there are different versions of scrambled, all of which are eggs spoiled, to me.

You obviously haven't tried scrambled eggs with smoked salmon - manna from heaven!

I wouldn't spoil the smoked salmon by doing that to it!


My wife likes scrambled eggs and will occasionally have them for lunch. I can't be in the kitchen when they are cooking, or for a while after, and can't be in the room where she is eating them. Smell & texture have both always been horrible to me.

Slarti

[TonyB]

Fresh eggs have tighter yolks and whites and are best for poaching, older eggs have watery whites which spread out in the water. Blumenthal has a method where he cracks the egg into a fine mesh strainer to get rid of some/all of the watery white to give a much tighter poached egg. As per a lot of these, I believe the theory behind the practice comes from Harold McGee.

[DiamondEcho]

As per a lot of these, I believe the theory behind the practice comes from Harold McGee.

...and his encyclopaedic tome for the kitchen 'On food and cooking'. I have a copy of it but can't spot it on our 'ram packed' bookshelves right now. Shame, it'd be interesting to see what he has to say. Perhaps I'll have a dig around later.

[TonyB]

DE, there is a brief mention of why to use fresh eggs for poaching in On Food and Cooking but I've seen the method referenced to his The Curious Cook book.

TonyB

[Itsallaguess]

One aspect of poached eggs that I don't think has been covered yet, where toast is involved, is just how crucial the eating process is in relation to the use of the toast....

My rules for eating poached-eggs on toast -

1. Two slices of toast must be used at all times.

2. The two slices of toast must be layered on the plate, with the bottom slice half-exposed underneath the top slice.

3. Two poached eggs must be placed, intact, onto the top slice of toast.

4. Salt, pepper, and brown sauce must be added at this stage, to taste. The amount of brown sauce added at this stage will be directly and inversely in proportion to the number of other people in the house at that time....

5. The bottom slice of toast shall be eaten in sections, along with sliced sections of one of the poached eggs.

6. Under no circumstances can yolk from the first egg be allowed to leave the edges of the upper slice of toast.

7. The bottom slice of toast will be exposed as required until it's finished at the same time as the final slice of the first poached egg.

8. At this point, the upper slice of toast, originally holding both poached eggs, will now contain one remaining poached egg and will be almost covered with lots of the yolk of the first egg that we've eaten.

9. The meal now moves from one of mild enjoyment to one of unbridled egg-stasy, as the remaining poached egg is enjoyed with a slice of toast already covered with lashings of yolk from the first egg......This is before the second intact egg is even opened up......I know - it's like Christmas when we were kids, right?

The above, if followed correctly and to the letter, is a culinary game of two halves which simply gets better and better as the meal goes on, and the final sections of the second slice of toast, now having soaked up not only some of the yolk of the first egg, but also lots of yolk from the second one too, end the meal on a taste-bud crescendo that is difficult to explain to anyone not experienced in the act.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Itsallaguess