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Why is poaching
eggs so difficult?

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So many recipes, which one should you choose? How can they be so different and all be right?

Maybe you got it right only to have it fail one day for no apparent reason? What went wrong? It's just an egg and water ... isn't it?

Here's the secret: the perfect poached-egg method depends on the special combination of things right in front of you, in your kitchen -- things that aren't made clear in a lot of recipes. We'll help you answer the questions "why has it gone wrong?", and "what's the right method for me?"

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First, understand
the ingredients

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Ingredients
Simple ingredients,
hidden complexity

To get a handle on poaching eggs, you have to look at each part of the system as a very complex thing on its own. So, when things don't go as expected, you'll realise you actually have quite a few possible remedies. Many methods leave out some important detail (or take it for granted).

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The Egg

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When comparing methods, you'll notice that they agree on one thing: fresh eggs matter. The problem is that "fresh" is rarely defined.

I started thinking about all this when it all went wrong with eggs that had been bought that day. Another time, I bought eggs at both the beginning and end of the week from a shop, and the eggs had the same expiration date. These eggs must've sat somewhere a few days before hitting the shelf.

So, rather than fresh, let's talk about the quality of the egg, largely made up of:

  • Clock IconTime from the chicken's butt to your mouth
  • Chicken IconThe entire process that made that egg

Eggs from caged/factory farmed chickens, and discount grocery store will tend to produce eggs with thin/brittle shells, runny whites, and pale yolks with a thin membrane that easily ruptures. This won't do any good, even if you take them right from the shop. Organic, and free range eggs are, on the other hand, sturdy, and tend to have much better color belying the nutrients and proteins that give it structure. We ran an experiment, with week-old eggs of a trusted brand and vendor a few times, and they really hold up.

Quite a few methods advocate straining the egg as a way to compensate for quality -- it'll reduce the amount of low-protein/high water-content albumin ( white ). For an old, or factory-produced egg, this might make the difference. It's not always easy to get down to the market these days.

Beyond quality, size does matter (sometimes). The size and type of egg can have vastly different mass variations. If you're following a recipe exactly, a 50% volume difference on a 2 minute recipe is a drastic change.

Times being what they are, you may not have a choice of which eggs you're going to get. So, remember that an egg is not just an egg. Consistency is probably the most important thing in terms of quality, so be prepared for hiccups when you change things up with your egg choice.

Egg Life Egg Chart
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The Water

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Water

With water, you're also going to see a few different approaches:

  • Salt IconSalt
  • Vinegar IconVinegar
  • Stir IconStirring (or other agitation)
  • Volume IconVolume
Water

Salt

Salt makes water floaty by increasing density. Floating is good, and density is good for keeping your egg together. Some recipes eschew salt. They don't say why, but the chemical change may affect the process of denaturing the proteins ( the process that makes the egg take its solid shape ). However, a lot of recipes tend to suggest very low amounts of salt, relative to the amount of water. Probably not enough to make a difference with floati-ness.

Water

Vinegar

Then there's vinegar - the controversy around this one is to do with flavour while the benefits of vinegar in your water are clear. A higher ph level, together with heat will more rapidly denature proteins to give your egg that nice tight shape. Many recipes are unclear about how much to use -- "a dash!" -- which, relative to the amount of water, can either give you a strong vinegar taste or won't have the intended effect. The right amount matters.

Water

Salt & Vinegar

Salt & vinegar together make hydochloric acid, which also helps with denaturing, however, it can also make your water bubble, which combined with boiling water can make for a very exciting situation, perhaps too exciting for some eggs, causing them to break up.

Water

Stirring

To swirl or not to swirl. If you're doing one egg at a time, this will give you a nice shape. But, at 3 minutes an egg, you're looking at spending 15 minutes making marginally better eggs. If you can't swirl, you are going to be in need of salt and or vinegar.

Water

Volume of Water

Then there's volume. Large volumes will hold heat, giving your egg a fighting chance to poach, but they take longer to boil, and you may be tempted to blast the heat, which few recipes recommend (agitation bad). It also dilutes the effectiveness of your salt and vinegar. A smaller container is going to make it easy to control your eggs, but now there's a chance that it's going to hit the bottom and start cooking, so you'll see these recipes lean on salt and or vinegar.

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The Heat

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This part is taken for granted in just about every method, each method is managing the denaturing process through a combination of things. Changing just one of these things will affect how much heat transfers, and how fast. Consider:

  • Stove IconYour stove (hob)
  • Pot IconYour cooking vessel of choice
  • Volume IconThe volume of water

Do you have a gas stove, electric, induction or ceramic electric? Your ability to control the heat is dependent on this one. An electric stove is going to be an all or nothing proposition that makes it difficult to maintain a low simmer after you've blasted the heat to get it to boil. Together with a flimsy pan, you're asking for trouble. You probably don't have a choice about this one, so think about how you're going to control your heat before you get started.

The vessel -- so often taken for granted. If you follow the recipe, and use exactly the same vessel, you're going to be OK, but those water volume ratios are going to matter if you're using vinegar and water. It's also going to make a difference in conducting and holding heat. If you're using one of the "take it off the heat" pan methods, a good pan that keeps its heat is going to make a difference with your time, and a glass lid is going to give you a good view for making decisions on-the-fly.

As mentioned above, the volume is going to make a difference with temperature, especially if you're dropping a few cold eggs into a small vessel. If you use the pan method, this could cause your water to cool below the cooking temperature. Low volumes are also tricky for high-temp/roiling boil methods. What larger volumes help with is creating a steady amount of heat that won't change, together with less violent bubbles, giving you a good chance of success.

Your Stove Cooking Vessel Water Volume
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Putting it all together

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If poaching an egg hides a lot of complexity, you can imagine what happens when you put it all together:

Ingredients

When it goes wrong:

The number of possibilities is large, and so is the room for miscommunication in a recipe.

When you examine many recipes, you'll find that they will gloss over small, but important details about their context. Maybe the pan they used is quite expensive and provides constant heat. Maybe the stove allows for them to control the heat, a pinch of salt, or a splash of vinegar, relative to how much water?

And more importantly, have they explained and verified why they've made that choice?

Something I've learned is that sometimes, better than time, you start to get a good sense of when an egg is done, to your liking, by looking at it. Time is often communicated as exact, but it's not a rule, and you shouldn't ignore what's in front of you.

When it goes right:

Beyond what goes wrong, it's important to pay attention to the general solutions that recipes have clustered around. Broadly speaking, all the methods out there are of four types, probably reflecting a general approach to life.

The barbarian - Gordon Ramsay

As expected, Gordon's recipe is 2 minutes, done. High heat, high risk & all excitement -- not for the feint of heart.

The thinker - Bridget Lancaster

As expected, from America's test kitchen, this one has done a lot of the thinking for you, and removes or neutralises quite a few variables.

The over-thinker - Lisa Bryan

This recipe does a lot of work to mitigate the risks- a deep pot, rather than a pan, no salt, straining, the stirring method, and a moderate heat.

The dude - David Chang

Whether this counts as "poaching" is up for debate, as this approach leaves the egg in the shell. This also covers the whole range of sous vide.

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What's important about these different approaches is that they've taken slightly different approaches to the same problem. They're all managing how to get the proteins in that egg to denature just enough (but not so much that they get to not be rubbery) while also not destroying that egg in the process.

Chart

Recipes that remove the egg from the hob are taking the water's agitation out of the equation. The slow-poach method completely removes the agitation variable by keeping the egg in the shell. Ramsay isn't worried by any of these things.

The "home chef" methods mitigate as many variables as possible by layering the mitigations -- using a deep vessel, stirring, straining, salt, straining the egg.

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Your own poached
egg method

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When trying to decide on what method to use, or trying to understand "what went wrong" the most important factor is actually you and your context!

With so many variables, and such short tolerances, in some cases, small things are going to make a big difference. Small adjustments to heat and time will go a long way, but consistency is going to matter the most. You're figuring out what works in your kitchen, with your eggs, stove, and pots/pans, in the time that you've got. That's your method.

Maybe you're a Gordon, maybe you're a David, maybe you're an Alton in between. Take your time, find Your Method

Then, that may work for you a hundred times, and one day, you get your eggs at a different place, it all goes wrong. Maybe you're trying to cook for company, using a lot of eggs, and the eggs are cold.

Pick your method
Ingredients
Egg