Cooking poached eggs is a nightmare! They are notoriously difficult to get right. With the swirling vortex of doom, the vinegar and trying to get the whites to swirl correctly, while they’re my favourite type of egg, I dread having to cook it that way; I can’t handle the whirlpool bit. Then there are the wispy white bits that get lost in the boiled water- I know I’m not the only one.
Today, I’m passing on my favourite poached egg hacks so you, and, by extension, me, can finally get the perfect poached eggs the proper chefs get.
1. Poking a hole in the yolk
I found this hack on TikTok by @AsianMumInLaw
It’s a straightforward poached egg hack anyone can do. All you need to do is crack an egg into a bowl and stick a toothpick in the yolk to create a hole.
Then grab some boiling water and pour it where you put the hole.
Then let it sit for a few minutes, drain the water and then you should have a perfectly round and poached egg.
2. Cling film
This hack requires an egg, cling film, a ramekin and olive oil.
You grab some cling film and put it inside the ramekin; then, you’ll put the corners on the outside of the ramekin.
After put a teaspoon of olive oil on the cling film and rub it around the area. (It’ll stop the egg from sticking to the cling film) then crack the egg into the cling filmed ramekin.
Then get all the corners gathered and tie the cling film up; make sure you get some of the air pressure out of it and knot it up.
Put some boiled water into a saucepan and then drop the cling filmed egg into the boiled water for three minutes (or however long you like to keep your poached eggs in the boiling water).
Then take it out of the water, and it should be poached. To serve it, just cut open the cling film and take the egg out.
3. Oven
This hack is also pretty simple. It will need a cupcake or muffin tin baking tray (or something similar)
First, you need to preheat the oven; if you forget to do this, it will take longer for the eggs to poach, and they’ll come out looking weird, and a strange yellowish stain will ruin the muffin tin. Set the oven to 180 degrees.
Then crack an egg into the desired number of muffin tin places. Then season with salt and pepper and put one teaspoon of water on top of each egg.
Put the tray into the oven; unlike the standard poaching method, this will take 10-15 minutes. You’ll know as the whites will no longer be translucent, and the yolk will be cooked to your likeness.
Let the eggs rest in the tray for one to two minutes and then scoop them out and serve in whatever way you like.
4. Boiling before poaching
Before putting the egg into the vortex of doom, you put the egg into boiling water for ten seconds, then you take it out and cook as standard, with the salt, pepper, vortex and vinegar.
5. Sieve method
This method starts with you getting a sieve and cracking the egg into it. It gets rid of the weird wispy white bits you usually find. Then with the egg still on the sieve, you cook the egg in the boiling water. Just remember to scrape the sides a little so the egg doesn’t stick.
I hope these five hacks I’ve given you today have made cooking poached eggs a simpler, less irritating affair. I’ll certainly rest easy now I don’t have to make random whirlpools with a whisk.
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