Poached Egg Recipe

I find so curious the response I got almost every time I talked to some French frien about poached eggs: “My grandmother cook them great!” Excuse me? Your grandmother? Curious response because when I was living in I considered them as something very difficult to cook and quite unusual (I never found one in a daily menu). Here, it turns out to be a grandmother’s speciality. I never saw any of my grandmothers to cook poached eggs. Confirmed also by all of my dad’s and my mom’s childhood. However, this is what is here, a grandma dish, because I know few people of my age who know how to make eggs like this.
For those who have asked theirselves, I must say yes, I talked a lot about poached eggs in the beginning of my stay in France. Why? Because it is one of the ingredients in one of the salads I’ll never get tired of. With bacon and croutons, it’s the Lyonnaise salad (guess what the next recipe will be? ;)). That salad encouraged me to learn how to cook poached eggs. That would be a way to have it again a lot of times, especially after leaving France. So until I really decided, lots of people listened to me regretting my cowardice in front of a poached egg everytime I asked for a Lyonnaise salad in a restaurant Lyon (and there were a lot). Well, look me now, when I really decided, not only I learned how to make poached eggs, but also, I found them a place for those weekends where you wake up late and having one of these eggs for breakfast makes you feel so good.
A poached egg, it’s not difficult to make at all, if four golden rules are followed to the dot. Well… I know that that is more rules than the ones needed to look after a gremlin, but an egg will never manipulate you to make you fail on poaching it. Conversely as what happens in the movie, where that guy is manipulated by the cute gremlins to make him to bend the rules. So, as that’s not going to happen, to make a poached egg, the rules you need to follow are these: use always fresh eggs; 2) never add salt to the cooking water (never! Because salty water prevents the egg white to propertly coagulate); 2) Add a little of vinegar (which has the opposite effect than salt and that’s just what we want) 3) never add the egg in boiling water (since bubbles would prevent the egg to be well formed), and 4) spin the water before adding the egg (for the white to wrap the egg and stay nice).


Poached Egg Recipe
Ingredientes
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar (or alcohol vinegar de alcohol)
- 1 l of water
Elaboración
- Bring the water to a boil, in a medium size pot.
- As it boils, reduce the heat to medium-high to water simmering.
- Add vinegar and mix.
- Crack the egg into a bowl, be careful to keep the yolk intact.
- Spin the water with a spoon, not to much, but the water should keep spinning.
- Carefully add the egg in one side of the pot, it will follow the direction of the water and the white will wrap the yolk by inertia.
- Cook the egg for 3-4 minutes to taste.
- Take the egg off from the water and drain well.
- Remove the beards around the white to give the egg a rounder shape.
- And it’s done.
Sugerencias, trucos y consejos
- ALWAYS fresh eggs.
- NEVER salt in hot water.
- ALWAYS a little vinegar.
- NEVER pour the egg in boiling water.
- ALWAYS spin the water before adding the egg.
- To remove the taste of vinegar, you can dip and take out the egg in a bowl of salty hot water.
- You can serve it on toast with a little salt (now yes!), some drops of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of paprika (as in the photo)
- You can serve it on top of a salad.

Genial tu post, me ha salido el huevo poché a la primera! Estamos preparando un brunch para celebrar mi cumpleaños y nos queda media hora y todavía no lo habíamos probado. No daba un duro por conseguirlo sin desperdiciar huevos pero tus explicaciones han sido fantásticas. En todas las webs explican el truco del papel film pero lo desaconsejo pues al calentarse el plástico libera sustancias tóxicas. Muchas gracias por tu ayuda!!!
Hola David!
Muchas gracias a ti por tu comentario. Me alegro que te salieran bien los huevos pochados a la primera!
Comparto contigo en que es mejor no calentar plásticos con la comida.
Un saludo.
Mi abuela los hacia , anda q pocos me comí y ahora ninguno como esos!! Voy a probar 😉
Abuela te quiero
Hola!
Espero que te salieran bien los huevos, aunque, seguro que tu abuela les daba un toque mágico.
Un saludo.