Annie, that's adorable!

S_7bAL, I checked out a couple of videos on the olive oil fried egg because it sounded interesting. I don't like my egg crispy, so that's not for me. Come to think of it, I don't really fry eggs. I don't heat my pan more than medium low and once the white is set, I add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan and use a spoon to ladle the heated water over the yolks until they have "cataracts", LOL. Done.

Donna, that's what I thought about the crispy white. When I do fry, I like the butter or bacon dripping just barely hot. I add the eggs and cook gently until done, but not crispy on the edges at all.

Annie: I'm pretty sure that is for hard/soft boiled eggs. I have an older (1950-60's probably) model that I still use. Mine is aluminum, but looks pretty much like yours. Mine holds more eggs and has an additional insert for poaching (which I never use). I love mine for hard cooked eggs. It steams them and they are always perfect and easy to peel. Mine has water line marks in the base to choose which degree of doneness you desire. May also be in lid as Pillog suggested. Worth a try!

Antiques sites call it an egg coddler...

FWIW, all my latin friends always use oil rather than butter for cooking any kind of egg. It's kind of odd at first when you're used to butter, but really it tastes just as good, just different.

Coddled egg just means gently cooked (as in not very) according to the dictionary. I've only seen the term use for ones broken into cups/dishes and heated in a bain marie, but apparently the term also covers soft boiled. "Coddler" sounds cozier than "boiler" or "steamer", and other than that one can also gently cook one's eggs to fully hard in it, I daresay it's the same thing no matter what you call it. "Egg coddler" usually refers to the cups, often with screw on lids to keep the water out of the eggs.

In my experience, a little bit of butter will coat the pan well enough to keep the egg from sticking, but it takes more oil. I don't find a big difference in flavor, either, but if you like your eggs in brown butter, you're not going to approximate it with oil. :)

No, but all my South American friends would find the idea of eggs in brown butter as disgusting as putting butter on rice. :)

I don't do it often, but when I do, I love butter on rice :-)

Writersblock, do not tell your friends about the new Taco bell fried-egg-as-a-shell breakfast offer. They may come apart.

Oh geez, I tried again today and complete disaster.

Did you get really fresh eggs?

Probably not. Frankly, I'm strictly grocery store eggs kinda woman. If I get them as gifts, great! But i don't seek 'em out.

Are you using the insert and spraying with Pam? What exactly is happening to them?

You do not need super fresh eggs to poach them. You only need super fresh eggs to make them pretty. Until you get the hang of it, try one at a time.

Put in the spoon of vinegar. You don't "need" the vinegar, but it helps, especially with an older egg. You shouldn't be able to taste it on the finished egg. Season the water if you like, but give the seasoning some time to dissolve/infuse before starting your egg. You don't need to season the water, but if you're not going to be letting your egg dry off you'll taste the water that clings to it, so it may as well taste good and not just watery.

Put a cooking spoon in the center of your pan and use micro-circles of the spoon to make a really good vortex in your simmering water, as if you were beating an eggwhite by hand with a fork, but straight up and down. Slide the egg from your little dish or big spoon into the middle of the vortex.

Use a slotted spoon to wrap the white around the yolk ball if you can. By the time you're done messing with the white, which should be opaque by now, pull the pot off the heat and let it set a minute or three. Use the slotted spoon to strain and move the egg. It's delicate--don't poke!

If your egg is less fresh (I'm talking supermarket plus a week or two in the fridge, not months), the white will probably clump in a ruffle rather than clinging to the yolk ball. You can gently trim it off if the look doesn't please you (that's what pros do). You can use it as a bed for the yolk ball, which will run nicely over it when cut. You can also set it aside for egg salad or to add to a sandwich, or discard it, or do as has been suggested up topic and drain off the watery bit before you even cook it so you'll get a perfect ball from the jump.

That's all there is to it.

My eggs last a week. Who keeps them for months???

LOL! Bossyvossy, we've had threads about it and apparently in a good fridge eggs evaporate but don't actually spoil. :) Additionally, some eggs are put into cold storage by the growers/distributors, and might be weeks old before you get them. So, I just wanted to define what I meant by not-fresh eggs--I promise that wasn't directed at you! It's just that people have been harping on fresh eggs and my old eggs poached fine, just not pretty. My old eggs are the time it takes to get to a nice grocery store with good turnover plus up to a couple weeks in the fridge, because people do keep eggs longer. And a lot of people read our threads without ever joining in. ;)

I didn't know producers might keep them in cold storage for months. Well, that grosses me out. I took no offense whatsoever at your statement.

ETS: I need to educate myself on the subject. I (stupidly) thought Henny Penny laid them on Monday, grower cleaned/packed on Tuesday. Trucker delivered to store Wednesday. Grocer stocked Thursday and us mortals bought on the weekend. No wonder you guys are making such a fuzz about fresh! I was completely unaware that the process is much, much longer. My neighbor that occasionally gives me eggs doesn't seem to have a problem buying at the store when her girls are not laying or else she doesn't know about the storage. She is picky; can't imagine she didn't know. Unless it is strictly relevant when poaching.

As I said earlier, as an egg ages the white and yolk both get thinner in viscosity. So a new-laid egg tends to stay together in the poaching process much better than a possibly weeks old supermarket egg. You can tell new laid eggs because they have a light sheen to the shell which disappears with age.

I excerpted this off the FDA.gov site, re: codes stamped at the end of grocery store egg cartons:

Specifically this, to help consumers determine the 'freshness' of the eggs purchased:

Javiwa, I'll take a closer look at crate

I tried it again in water and I just can't do it. I used the "fresh eggs" I just bought, and it didn't work. They were day 247 (Sept 4th). I guess by the time they hit the grocery they just aren't fresh laid. I will stay with my pan. It worked great the other day. I got the water to boiling, with the cup holder in and reduced to simmer, while I fixed the cups. I sprayed the cups with a VERY small amount of Pam and spread with my fingers. I cracked the eggs into the cups, placed the cups over the water, and put on the lid. I kept checking until the whites were done. I used a silicone spatula and they came out perfect. Nothing stuck to the pan.

ETA: It is aluminium not stainless (been awhile since I used it). My husband loved them btw.

ETA again: I guess I won't be making Masterchef anytime soon. lol.

I thank y'all for sharing your knowledge. I took a pic of my latest egg crate. In this particular case 258 Julian date is = September 15, not too old but certainly not as fresh as I thought. After reading here I started having visions of consuming eggs packed last Jan.

Funny - just this morning, my son wondered if there was some correlation between 'Best By' date and freshness, rather than have to figure out what day on the Julian calendar '268' is, for example. It's now turned into Take a Photo of Your Egg Carton Day! :)

This is a sample size of only two, but it appears Best By dates are roughly six weeks after the date the eggs were processed at the plant.

If you are glued to iPhone or iPad, all yo do is google julian calendar and select 268= sep 25th

Poaching eggs....really "poaching" them not in a buttered pan over boiling water, is really not rocket science....go slow....may take you longer for the egg to cook, you can tell how done it it by the way it "jiggles" when lifted with a spoon from the water. If you are having the eggs break up....slow down!!
Bring a quart pan 3/4 full of salted water with a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to a boil.....while that's happening, break your egg into a cup. When the water boils, remove the pan from the heat ( if you are lucky or smart enough to be cooking with gas, just turn it off, if you are cooking with electricty, induction or whatever....take the pan off the burner)...make a vortex in the water....slide the egg into the middle....if you are really unsure....stir the water gently at the outside in a circle to keep that swirl going....when the white gets opaque, clap on a lid and let it sit for 4 to 5 minutes ( remeber the pan is off the heat.)
Check the egg with a slotted spoon and see how much the center jiggles....return to the hot water if it's too liquid.

I've just seen a scientist demonstrate poaching eggs on the tv. I won't have time to try this before the weekend but wanted to share.

Bring a litre/2 pints of water to a simmer, NOT the rolling boil. Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and another of salt.

Break your egg into fine sieve or tea strainer to allow the runny white to run off. (There are 2 different whites to an egg, apparently!) Tip into a little cup. When the water is simmering very gently, slide in the egg which will fall to the bottom. Leave it alone and wait. It will be ready when it floats to the surface.

It looked great on the tv..........

I've been following this thread with interest as I love poached eggs as well. I tried a variation of Lindac92's method and the one Islay Corbel posted just above and the eggs were lovely! I brought the water to a boil, and then turned the burner off (I think Linda meant if you are lucky enough to have either gas or induction, just turn off the burner as they are both "instant off"). I omitted the swirling part, the vinegar and also the straining part, I just put the eggs that I bought from Costco on the weekend into the water. I put the lid on the pot and let them sit.

The first thing that I noticed was that they did spread a bit, but not as much as when the water is bubbling or swirling. The second thing I noticed was they didn't float to the surface when done, so they were a bit overcooked (soft, but not very runny). Last, when I scooped them out of the water, the bits that normally need to be trimmed off just fell away, and I was left with a pretty good looking poached egg. Even the bits that were left were soft, not hard and ruffled as they usually are. I'll try it again.

On the plate, no trimming:

I have a husband that loves poached eggs so I make them fairly often. The secret to making poached eggs is using farm fresh eggs.

I cook two at a time in a pot of water with a splash of vinegar. I crack the egg into a small ramekin. When the water is simmering I give it a little swirl with a spoon and slide the egg into the water. Give it a second or two, move the egg over and slide in the second one.

Looks yummy Anne. I wish toast and bacon was on my menu. :)

I have tried every post so far except the last one (farm fresh). It doesn't work for me. I guess because I like the white and you lose too much of the white for me. Islay"s and Linda's hints I guess worked, because mine came out like Sherri"s. I just like more white with the yolk.

Sherry, I think you can save more of the white if you use egg cups similar to the ones I posted a picture of. Wait until the water is hot before cracking the eggs into the cups, then immediately put them into the pot.

Thanks Donna, but I really like the way they look and taste out of the pan I posted a picture of on Sunday in this thread. I am going to stay with it.

Sherry the fresher the egg, the firmer the white. If the egg is older, the whites just flow out into the water and don't hug the yolk.

Thank you, yes, I know that Ann. I just like them out of the pan of mine better. I do not like the water on the egg and I like all the egg white, not just most of it. I would rather have them fried, scrambled, or 3 minute in the shell than the ones in the water.

Totally legit, Sherry! The reason for poaching is to have a seriously runny yolk but totally cooked white. If you're not really into all that yolk, and like other ways of cooking better, well, that's why there are a thousand ways to cook eggs! It doesn't matter what they're called so long as you like the ones you're making.

Unfried eggs? lol I guess that was the other thing, While I like runny yolk, the ones I did seemed too runny. I thought I just wasn't getting them done.

This thread became more eggciting than I thought possible. The yolks on me for doubting.

dirtmechanic, you crack me up! Humor brings my sunny side up.

dcarch

AnnT, that looks perfect for breakfast. I'm all about the runny yolk, I give the whites to the dogs. I never eat scrambled eggs and those imposters they serve on things like fast food breakfasts that they call "folded eggs"? Not gonna happen, LOL. Heck, I don't even really like omelettes, although I'll happily eat quiche.

Plllog, I checked the inside of my egg cooker gadget. No markings on the top or bottom. Elery couldn't stand it, though, so he put in some water and plugged it in. Just a few seconds and it was boiling away, so it works and nothing caught on fire...

Annie

I used a sous vide recently and got the most perfect poached eggs.

The sous vide keeps the water at a specific temperature that you set... Even though you cook them in the shells, they don't taste like a boiled egg because the water temp is lower. That sounds like the ravings of a crazy person, but they DO taste differently.

Egg science, I guess.

Not crazy. Poached and boiled do have a different flavor, especially in the white.

But do you actually do them sous vide (i.e., under vacuum)? Or are you just putting them right in the water bath, naked shells, with the regulator?

I usually make them I a pan with just water in it. They aren't perfect but that's ok. I have made poached eggs when I want to make a salad or even to mix in tuna or just egg salad.

Pillog, they just go naked in shells in the water for about 45 minutes (it's the only thing we DON'T bag to cook). It seems a long time, but you don't have to watch them like you do when you just put them in boiling water and you can do a few this way plus I don't have the separation that I used to when I dropped them in water (I'm a pretty lazy cook and wouldn't bother with the vinegar and swirly water).

Ah. Interesting! I've pasteurized eggs with the circulator but never thought of this... New question: How to you get the shells off without tearing the eggs?

With great difficulty lol But it's worth it.

You just crack it close to whatever you're serving on. It will 'blob' out. I understand (haven't tried) that you can also roll it on paper towel on the counter if your whites are firmer.

I'm new to this method of cooking (only done a few things), but I'm really enjoying it.

I'm guessing this is a good way to pasteurize eggs for egg nog?

Here's a chart I found:

This egg guide for sous vide is brilliant.

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-egg-calculator

Yes, egg nog, mayonnaise, Cesar salad, anything you want to use raw-ish eggs for but don't want to risk salmonella, etc., you can pasteurize yourself with sous vide regulator. You Tartare, too, but given the raw meat it seems a little wiff. I've only done for mayonnaise. The eggs get a little cloudy but behave properly, and since mayonnaise (and egg nog) is opaque, there's no issue.