The best way to poach an egg without vinegar

Question

What is the best way to poach an egg without vinegar? Is there a quick and easy alternative?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Heston Blumenthal has brought his unique scientific approach to bear on this recently. The main pointers for a perfect poached egg are as follows:

• The egg must be fresh. A fresh egg has a thicker, more gel-like albumen. As it gets older, this becomes watery, and so just disperses throughout the water when you add it. To test if your egg is fresh, place it in a jug of cold water. If it floats, it's not fresh - the egg has had time to absorb air through its shell. A fresh egg sinks and stays sunk.

• The water temperature should be 80ºC/176ºF exactly. You can measure this with a sugar or probe thermometer. The egg should be at room temperature.

• The egg should not come into contact with direct heat, so put a plate or small bowl on the bottom of the pan, bottom up.

Once the water (in a medium to large saucepan) is up to temperature, carefully add the fresh egg and cook for 4 minutes exactly (for a large egg of the domestic chicken, Gallus gallus domesticus). Drain and serve - the white should be set but not rubbery (a drawback of using vinegar) and the yolk should be creamy and rich.

Answer 2

Just simmer water, and poach the egg. The vinegar is simply there to help coagulate the white. I never use vinegar for poaching eggs. You just have to try to be as careful as possible when setting the egg into the water. have the water at a bare simmer, not a rolling boil. These things will help to keep the white intact.

Answer 3

This method may not be practical if you want a lot of poached eggs but this is what I do.

• wait for the water to come to the boil
• turn down heat somewhat
• use a spoon to stir the water until a visible vortex forms in the middle of the pot
• gently pour in the egg in the vortex
• wait until done