I have an egg poacher with teflon coated inserts that works very well. You can also use the pan for other purposes without the insert. Mine came from WilliamsSonoma but I have seen them advertised by other companies.

jude

Unless an egg is immersed in liquid, I don't consider it to be a poached egg. The rings that you put into a pan don't change the fact that you are just frying an egg. It just reigns the egg into a perfect shape. I always salt the water and add a shot of vinegar. The vinegar helps to hold the egg from streaming all over the place (I also add a shot of vinegar to the water when I boil eggs for the same reason. If an egg cracks it quickly seals itself without leaking into the pan.)

I use an egg poacher very much like the one in the link I am posting, except that mine have longer handles. I do first spray them with Pam before cracking the eggs into them. They work very well.

Here is a link that might be useful: egg poaching tray/bowl

Despite countless attempts with many "foolproof" methods - guess I'm more of a fool than they counted one - I've had limited success poaching eggs directly in water without substantial feathering. I've thought about getting one of those teflon poachers, but they don't seem to sell separately and it kills me to buy a pan I don't need.

So count me in as interested in the responses here.

I use a small pan and make a swirl....an eddy in the pan... Break an agg into the middle of the swirl, pop on the lid (w ith the heat off of course) and cook until set.
For 2 to 4 I just use several pans....but if you are poaching a bunch, remove from the simmering water as soon as they are set and pop into ice cold water....repeat un til you have enough.
Then bring another pot of water to a simmer and re heat the eggs in there...
Don't cook too much the first time or you will have over done eggs.
Linda c

The method I use produces perfect poached eggs every time. I know that some are leery about using plastic wrap to cook in but I do it so rarely, and the water is at such a low simmer, and the eggs are in there for such a short period of time....I'm not concerned.

Line a small ramekin with plastic wrap. Spray some PAM on it, crack the egg in and then twist the wrap closed.

Place the egg "bundles" in a pot of simmering water, very low boil. Wait a minute and then untwist the wrap and let the almost cooked egg simmer directly in the water until done to your liking.

Technically I don't make poached eggs, but my result is the same. I microwave them in ramekins for 10-13 seconds, check the whites, and microwave again for another 10-15 seconds. No added fats of any kind, no pots of boiling water. Just delicious eggs, perfectly done. They slip right out of the ramekin every time in 30 seconds or so.

I cover the ramekin with plastic wrap and poke a tiny steam hole in it.

For the purists who insist on egg-and-water contact my method will never do. But for easy, delicious eggs in a few seconds, with no fat or salt, you can't beat this way.

Sherry

Lindac: I am going to try your method. Thanks for sharing!

Chase: Interesting! I like your idea too! Those
are just the cutest eggs.

I didn't include a photo of my fabulous egg with my original post, but here goes. This is using one of my mini tarts pans. As you can see I was quite pleased with the result!

{{!gwi}}

I am going to take everyone's responses into consideration. Thanks folks!

I use a shallow, non-stick skillet (I have several sizes, depending on how many eggs I'm poaching). I fill with water (about an inch) and add a bit of vinegar. I break the eggs individually into a small glass ramekin, and slide them into the simmering water one at a time letting a little of the water into the ramekin when the egg slides out, spacing them around the pan. Then I let them be. When the whites are set, I remove them with a slotted spoon. I do keep the water simmering as they cook.

I get perfect results every time.

seagrass

I have been pretty successful using the microwave and custard cups for poached eggs. I donÂt have directions but when I was a kid my grandmother baked eggs in the oven. I have 2 of the glass cups she used. They each have 3 little feet I guess to keep the up off the cookie sheet she put them on. I think about her every time I see them in the cabinet but never have tried to bake an egg. Anyone know how?

Claudia

I'm another that doesn't consider an egg poached unless it is cooked in water. I bring a pot of water to a low simmer, add a little vinegar and do the same swirl that Linda does. I find that fresh eggs are the best eggs to use for poached. The albumin holds together better.

I used a Foil Baking Cup,
made it wider, with the bottom of a Mayo Jar, to the shape of a saucer. Sprayed on some Pam.

Placed it in the Hot Skillet, broke an egg into it,
poured some water into the skillet and
put the lid over it for about 3 minutes.

You can peep and cook it till your own taste or doneness.

It came right out of the foil and on to my Plate.
Didn't last long. !!!

AND, no dishes to clean.

The new PC isn't set yet, so the photo is a little bright.
LOU

Mango:
I also use a Skillet to make sunny side up poached eggs.

Get the pan hot put in a couple tablespoons of water and
crack the egg into the pan.
Put a small lid over the egg.
Cook intil it is done to your liking.
Lou

If yuo try it in the microwave, do use the plastic wrap with the steam hole that Sherry describes.

At one of the restuarants I worked at, every now and then someone would order a poached egg. The cooks would do them in the microwave, but without the plastic. Our nukers were on a shelf about head-high. Not once, but twice we had to take folks to the ER for burns because the darn yolk exploded as they were removing the dish. One of our cooks got a cornea burn. The manager got a second degree eyelid burn. Five seconds to put plastic wrap on the dish might have avoided both incidents.

I guess I'm not so picky about how they look because I just drop them into simmering water with the swirl, like Ann T and LindaC.

I do make microwave eggs, but those are strictly for egg sandwiches at work, there's no other cooking method available there. And I alway poke a hole in the yolk before I put it in the microwave to avoid the explosions.

Annie

You mean you poke a hole in the plastic wrap, not the egg, right, Annie? I've never had an egg explode, (or a potato, either, for that matter) but since I figure it CAN happen, I poke holes in the potato and a pinhole or two in the plastic wrap - NOT the yolk!

And - I learned the microwave trick from my husband when we got our first microwave 25 years ago. He learned it when he worked in a restaurant when he was in college in 1961! They were doing "poached" eggs in the "radar range" way back then. And they called them "poached" on the menu. I wonder how many restaurants do that nowadays, and nobody knows the difference. I don't know anyone who works in a restaurant to ask!

Sherry

Sherry, Every restaurant I ever worked at and every one that my friends worked at microwaved "poached" eggs with one exception: a hotel restaurant in a tourist area that cooked them the traditional way on Sundays because of special Sunday brunch menu. (Every other day, into the microwave they went.)

I've never seen the yolk explode anywhere else. It was just that one place, but it happened several times there. It probably wouldn't have burned the two people it did except they were both very tall and so at face level. For the rest of us, we had to reach slightly above eye level heads to take food out.

I'll tell you the one that tripped me up the first time I heard it. I was the breakfast grill cook one Satruday and we got an order for a basted egg. I told the head cook I'd basted chickens and turkeys, but I had no clue how to baste an egg. Heck, I grew up in a family where eggs were only served scrambled, so there was a learning curve for me for anything else, but that completely flummoxed me.

Sherry, I think that Annie really meant poking the egg yolk. I use to have a little microwaveable "poached" egg dish (and I use the word poached very loosely, because unless the egg is cooked it water, lots of water, I don't consider it poached) the instructions called for poking the yolk with a fork. This prevented the egg yolk for exploding.

Ann

Yes, Sherry, I poke a hole in the yolk. I put that first one in the microwave for a minute and the darned thing exploded all over the microwave. After that I always poke a hole in the yolk of the egg. I don't use plastic wrap, I just break the egg into a cup and put it in the microwave.

As has been said, it's not a poached egg to me unless it's cooked in lots of water.

Annie

A minute in the microwave? Wow, that must have been awful to clean up, Annie. They're perfect, with runny yolks like AnnT's above, after about 20 to 25 seconds or so.

Yes, I know they're not really poached, but they sure are good, and foolproof. And less trouble, too, although I'm pretty good at boiling water!

Thanks for the info, beanthere. Have you learned how to baste eggs? What do you baste them with? Bacon grease?

Eggs cooked in cups are actually 'shirred eggs', not poached, but they are easier if not as authentic.

I purchased these and they really do work. Noticed that Cook's Illustrated this month tried them and agree.

Here is a link that might be useful: Silicon egg poachers

here's what I use a vintage electric egg poacher, egg cooker. Shown with the egg poaching cups. Believe it or not it only takes about 1.5 tablespoons of water to poach the eggs or hardboil 6 eggs, in about 20 minutes,, very green LOL

You know, Sherry, I never did get good at it. I think I saw only three or four orders for a basted egg the whole time I worked in kitchens, and since I don't like soft yolks, it's not something I'd ever make for myself.
The head cook told me to use oil from the fryer. (!) I told him I thought that was pretty disgusting and used oleo. (Which, sad to say, is what passes for butter in most chain restaurants, which that one was.)

That is one job I do not miss. I'm not a morning person anyway, but the cook's line on weekend breakfasst shift in a tourist town is brutal.

I know eggs cooked without being immersed in water as "coddled eggs" and I remember as a child being served them for breakfast when I stayed overnight at a friend's house.

I have a couple of these bone china egg coddlers with metal lids, (seen on the link) at the moment stored away, but I do love the flavour of eggs that have been cooled this way.

SharonCb

Here is a link that might be useful: Coddled Eggs

I know two different methods as "Coddled" eggs. The first, the one that Sharon mentions above is one of Moe's favourite ways to have his eggs. It is the second method that I use when I need a coddled egg for my cesar salad. Following Julia Child's method, the egg is lowered into a pot of boiling water, the burner turned off, and left for just one minute, and then removed from the water.

Ann

Oops mine should have said 'cooked' this way....not COOLED LOL!

(I like them still hot .)

SharonCb

and that leads us to soft boiled eggs, served in an egg cup...
My mother loved soft boiled eggs....3 1/2 minutes in a certain sized pan with a lid, after the heat was turned off. Too done and the dog got a treat.
I can't stand a soft boiled egg...I guess because I am afraid there might be some uncooked white in there......shudder...but I like fried eggs and poached with a runny center. Just cook the white!!
I have 2 kinds of egg cups in my Mason's vista...one a little cup for one egg and the other with a one egg end and a larger cup to break the egg into, I guess.
But no egg scissors.
Linda C

TeHe....egg scissors! What on earth?

How else do you nicely get into a soft boiled egg?

Here is a link that might be useful: Egg scissors

My Nana had scissors like those, but not with the little chicken. I would eat soft boiled eggs, which I wasn't fond of, just to use the scissors.

She also cut the toast into fingers so we could dip them in the egg.

Good memories.

I love poached eggs cooked about 4 min- a bit on the harder side. I use the silicon poachers because I'm an absolute failure at true poaching. My egg comes apart. DH likes poached eggs as well, but he's really irritated when a restaurant plops it in a little saucer and serves it unstrained and floating in water. Watery eggs, YUCK!

I prefer the silicon poaching cups more than the metal, I don't really know why, I just do. However with only two of them ( at $10 each), it's a production when I want to make 4 eggs for the two of us!

My mother loves soft boiled eggs and made them when I was growing up. The only way I can stomach them was with bits of buttered toast torn up and mixed into the larger side of the egg cup with the broken egg. If she had egg shears, I don't recall seeing them. Over the years she has collected a large number of egg cups. I wonder what I'll do with them when she breaks up the house...no one else in the family will eat them.

Lindac: I tried your method of swirling the water and it worked like a charm! I achieved the same results as I did when I used my tart pan in the water, but without all of the work. Needless to say, I am going to stick with this method!

Like ann t, I also coddle my egg in the very same fashion for my caesar salad dressing. It makes it so much easier to work with.

Annie1992 I agree with annie that to poke a hole
in the yolk will keep it from running all over
the place, whether it is in the microwave or in a plate. I
poke a hole in all of my fried eggs when making huevos ranchero's. It makes the dish so presentable! Grab your fork, dig in and who cares after they are served. LOL

I've seen those egg scissors before, but not actually being used. Always been curous about how they work, but it would probably be rude to stand over someone's shoulder at breakfast, investigating their technique, eh? :D

Peter, welcome back, I haven't seen you here in a long time!

Nice egg poacher, somehow I knew you'd have one...

I've seen egg scissors but have never used them because I never liked soft boiled eggs.

When I was a kid we had "basted eggs" I guess, Grandma would crack an egg into about an inch of hot bacon grease in the frying pan and then spoon hot grease over the top to cook the top of the egg.

I didn't like those much either.

Annie