Poached Egg
Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 2 Steps 5
A poached egg is an egg cooked by poaching an egg, as opposed to boiling or simmering. A well-poached egg is soft and delicate, with the egg whites solidified around a runny egg yolk.
Ingredients
- Eggs
- Vinegar (optional)
Steps
- Fill saucepan with about 1 cm water. Optionally add 1 tablespoon vinegar to prevent billowing; may affect taste.
- Heat water to "shrimp eyes" stage, 70–80 °C (155–175 °F): small bubbles form on pan base, then rise.
- Stir water in circle to make gentle whirlpool.
- Crack egg into strainer. Shake to drain excess liquid white. Lower strainer into water. Roll egg out. Yolk sets in 2–3 minutes.
- Repeat for each egg, waiting 10–15 seconds between eggs to prevent sticking.
Notes from the original
- Fresher eggs keep their shape more easily than older eggs.
- Use a heavy-based saucepan, since the heat distribution on its bottom is more even.
- A tablespoon of vinegar can be added to the water, since this helps the eggs to set rapidly and prevents the egg white from billowing.
- Agitating the water slightly by making a small whirlpool helps to prevent billowing as well as sticking
- Leaving 10–15 seconds between adding eggs helps prevent them from sticking, particularly in small pans, as the earlier egg will have lightly set on the outside.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Poached Egg” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-08, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Rice-bowl-risotto-food-thumbnail(1).jpg by AnonymousUnknown author, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.