Food - Drink
The Kitchen Tool You Need For Perfect Poached Eggs
By LAUREN CAHN
There are countless tips and tricks across the internet that claim to help cooks create tightly formed, round poached eggs, as opposed to loose bunches of egg tendrils. Tasting Table recipe developer Ting Dalton’s fool-proof method involves one classic tip, as well as an extra step and extra tool that may make all the difference.
Dalton’s method involves using a small, fine-mesh sieve to “decant” her eggs before setting them in the water. Cracking the egg into a sieve filters out the wateriest parts of the egg white, which would normally spread out in the pot of simmering water and create uneven, drifting pieces of egg white instead of a nice, round egg.
Dalton also follows some classic tips and adds a bit of vinegar to the water, then creates a swirling vortex in the pot when poaching the eggs, and recommends using the freshest eggs available. As eggs age, their makeup becomes increasingly watery, so fresh eggs will curb the spread of any loose egg whites in the pot of water.