The Incredible Edible Egg

Day 6: Poached Eggs

"How would you like your eggs?" the waitress would ask, to which I would reply, "scrambled," always "scrambled!"  I've had them fried.  I've had them hard boiled.  I've had them deviled, wait, make that stuffed (thank you to the egg man Mr. Bob Harris for that gentle correction)  And, of course, I've had them scrambled.  But until today the poached egg had eluded me.

I don't really know why I had never tried a poached egg.  I suppose the situation had just never presented itself.  Growing up we were just always given scrambled eggs.  I can definitely see why it would be easier when faced with the task of feeding the hungry mob that is my family, to crack a dozen or so eggs, scramble them and serve them rather than individually poach or fry them all and serve them up one by one.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not claiming to have been deprived in any way, culinarily speaking (yeah, I'm pretty sure I just made that word up)  There were endless variations of the classic scrambled egg.  Among my favorites were Bacon in the Eggs, a pretty self explanatory dish with chopped up bacon cooked into the eggs.  And who can forget Grandma Eggs.  I'm sure everyone has their own interpretation of this dish.  For us this meant green onions finely chopped and cooked into the fluffy mounds of eggs, still a delicious combo to this day.  However, I think what made Grandma's eggs the most special was when we got to whip them up ourselves with the old hand crank beaters.  I gotta get me some of those!

Never-the-less, as delicious as any one of the other egg preparation options would be, I decided today would be the day that I would broaden my culinary horizons.  Today I would poach an egg...then eat it.

I knew the basic principle behind poached eggs.  It's the contents of an egg dropped into boiling water.  However, to make sure I wasn't missing a vital component I did my research online in search of any other tips or tricks that would improve my final product.  Aside from using some sort of egg poaching apparatus there was not too much useful advice to be found.  I did find something that said to place a mason jar ring at the bottom so the egg would fall into it and thus remain mostly in tact.  However, I do not own a lid to a mason jar, nor was I going to buy one on the mere chance that it would work.  So what did I do?  I did what any sensible person would do.  I just decided to wing it.

I got out the pot and got the water almost boiling (but not all the way cause that's what the internet said) The first egg went in, at which point it immediately began to fly apart as partially cooked egg shrapnel went everywhere in a white frothy mess.  I used a slotted spoon to scoop out most of the renegade egg bits, and what I found underneath was the remainder of what seemed to be a perfectly formed poached egg!

For my second attempt I thought I'd experiment a little.  Perhaps I would be the chosen one, the one to come up with the ultimate user friendly technique for the perfect poached egg.  I was not.  I tried putting an egg at the bottom of a mug then pouring the boiling water on it hoping the mug would help the egg retain its shape and most of its contents while cooking.  However, once the water hit the cold egg the egg did more to cool the water than the water did to cook the egg.  Oh well, it was only one egg.  No big loss.

My third attempt, however, was pure genius if I do say so myself.  I got my water back up to a boil, then instead of cracking the egg directly into the water I put it into a soup ladle, then gently poured the egg into the water.  Ta-Da!  It worked.  Minimal shrapnel, maximum egg magnificence.  Don't believe me?  Try it.  You'll never poach and egg the same way again. 

The only thing left to do now was eat them.  So I scraped the burnt part off my toast (an integral part of this particular dish as it it necessary for scooping, scraping, and soaking up the yoke) and poured myself a big glass of milk (the most important part of any balanced breakfast.)  I would have to say, as an overall impression, poached eggs are not bad.  I particularly enjoyed the light and fluffy airiness of the egg whites.  I don't know that I'll be waking up each morning to a piping hot breakfast of poached eggs but there is a distinct possibility that I will poach again.