What are the merits of a poached egg?

It’s a texture and shape thing. The cracked egg is placed in boiling water for about 3 minutes, and the white cooks around the yolk, while the yolk should remain soft – so it’s like a soft-boiled egg with the shell already removed. It is very tricky to prepare, and the key is to have VERY fresh eggs. A dollop of vinegar is typically added to the water, as it is said to help the whites form around the yolk – it barely changes the flavor, if at all.

They are traditionally used in Eggs Benedict (one of my favorite breakfasts), and we have seen them used as ingredients in asian-inspired dishes. One of the trickiest recipes I’ve seen with poached eggs is the Scotch Egg, where a poached egg is surrounded by a layer of sausage meat, then breaded and fried. Delicious!

Well, I’ve been thinking of trying it. Have no idea how fresh my eggs are!
Gonna boil the egg for 3 minutes, then put it on toast with melted cheese. Does that sound good?

If the eggs are purchased from a grocery store, rather than the farm, they aren’t usually very fresh. My fiancé is the chef in the family, and he has watched a bunch of videos on the web – YouTube and many cooking sites have instructional videos.

A poached egg on toast with melted cheese sounds delicious!

I purchased eggs from a farm once. When I began cooking with them the house filled with a horrible smell. The eggs were rotten. :(

Yikes! Well, that has not happened to us, thankfully. I hope you complained to the farmer!

No…it was a coworker of mine. She brought them in to work. I let it slide. I would like to find farm fresh eggs, though. Shouldn’t be too hard around here!

Here’s an easy way to remove an egg (hard or soft boiled) without harming the yolk. Remove it from the boiling water with a spoon. Put your hand in cold running water, and put the hot egg in your palm. Crack the shell with the back of the spoon all over. Turn the spoon over, and slip it under the shell, allowing the water to follow the spoon, which helps to loosen the shell from the egg. The egg should slip right out of the shell with very little effort. If you want your egg to remain hot, use warmer water on your egg. Then use your egg as desired.

Poached eggs are delicious on toast, and…you can tell an eggs freshness by the shape and color of the yolk.
A fresh egg will have a deep yellow gold yolk that will be round, elevated and firm.
An old egg will have a flat yolk with pale color.

Hey..it was pretty good! Guarantee you the eggs weren’t “fresh,” but they were still pretty good. That poaching takes a little bit of practice, doesn’t it.

If anyone wants to find farm fresh eggs where you live, just input your zipcode into this website, specify the mile radius and you should find several within driving distance. There should be no problem with freshness since selling otherwise would cost them a customer for life.

(your co-worker most likely brought in leftovers which had been sitting around for awhile to get rid of them. Sloppy seconds, so to speak. Even farm fresh eggs have to be refrigerated or they’ll spoil)
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www.localharvest.org

I used them for eggs benedict, and didn’t think it was too difficult, just…different. Love them!

I love poached eggs. Another tip is to keep the water just below boiling point. If it’s boiling too hard the bubbles will break up the egg white before it’s set.

@downtide: True. I messed that up in my original response. We bring the water just below boiling than turn off the heat before adding the eggs and keeping them in for 3 minutes.