On my last visit to Bed Bath and Beyond I bought silicone egg poaching cups on a whim. I love poached eggs but I get a little annoyed about the floating egg ghosts, the parts of the albumen (the white) that don't actually coagulate with the rest of the egg. I feel like I'm losing egg in the process.
I originally started this post as a scathing review of the poach pod. It turns out... I was using it wrong.
The instructions on these poach pods say the eggs should only take 3 to 5 minutes to cook. My first attempt took over 10 minutes and I still didn't have a properly cooked egg. The bottom was horribly overcooked and the top was still completely raw. I thought it must have been the product because I had read the directions and there's no way I made a mistake.
The instructions were fairly simple. Boil water, crack egg into silicone cup, place cup in water (This is where I stopped reading apparently; there was one more step that I don't normally take with poached eggs) cover the pot. The only way the egg will cook fully in 3 to 5 minutes is to cover the pot, thereby increasing the humidity, air temperature, and pressure around the egg.
My first attempt at poached eggs left me not wanting to try again. The bottom of the egg was rubbery, the yolk was half chalk and half runny. All in all, gross. Upon discovery of my error I decided to brave the silicone egg poacher again, this time covering the pot. I followed the instructions and low and behold I had a cooked egg in 4 minutes.
Now what I like about poached eggs is the consistency of the egg. It's lighter and more delicate than a fried egg and more complex than scrambled. The eggs that come out of the silicon poacher conforms to the shape of the cup and ends up a little more rubbery than I'm looking for in a poached egg. I think the fact that it doesn't touch the water causes the egg to react differently to the heat and it coagulates in a different, more structured way. It certainly wasn't the worse egg I've ever had (ok maybe the first one I poached was) but I think I'll stick to the old fashioned way.
Poached eggs:
Boil water then reduce heat to a gentle simmer
Add a splash of white vinegar
Crack egg into a small ramikin or dish
lower egg into water
Cook for 3 to 4 minutes
Fish egg out with a slotted spoon
Eat
It's pretty simple really, it just sounds fancy.
