Yes, I can get a bit…obsessed…at times.
My good friends over at Cheap Seat Eats blog turned me on to a video in which Wylie Dufresne shows a new way to poach an egg. If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know I’ve been working to perfect the various methods of cooking the venerable Hen’s Egg. I just about have the hard-cooked egg down pat (thanks to my friend and author Barb Hendee), but the perfect poached egg has eluded me.
I’ve tried many methods. I’ve tried classic out-of-the-shell methods like the dead-drop (sticks to bottom of pot), the swirl/vortex (still all thready), and the Martha Stewart cook-in-spoon-followed-by-scissoring-off-the-threads-to-make-it-look-nice-nice method (too obsessive, even for me). I’ve tried several in-the-shell methods, too, from the classic 5-minute egg (impossible to peel), to David Chang’s one-hour slow-cook method (too unreliable and never cooked well enough).
Nothing has pleased me. Here’s what I want in a poached egg:
- Firm, cooked white
- Creamy, orange yolk, almost like a sauce when it spills
- Enough of a “sag” in the cooked egg so that it looks poached, not hard-cooked
Dufresne’s method, based on modernist techniques and analysis, gives us a perfect, in-shell, poached/soft-cooked egg. I tried it once. Damned near perfect. I tried it again. Damned near perfect again. My only complaint was that the egg stood a bit too tall, and was a bit “too” cooked at the prescribed cooking time.
So, I set about performing a time trial. Four eggs. Four cook times, ranging from Dufresne’s prescribed 5:45 min, and downward.
The Time Trials
I used Dufresne’s method (below), but shortened the cook times. I ran four eggs through the test, one at each of the following cook times:
- 5:45 (five minutes forty-five seconds)
- 5:00 minutes
- 4:00 minutes
- 3:00 minutes
The results were pretty clear, and more dramatic than I expected.
- 5:45 minutes
This is Dufresne’s cook time, and if you overshoot it just a little bit, it’s a bit too done for my liking. The egg stands a bit too tall and the white is cooked a tad too hard. Still, it’s a dependable time and the yolk is very nice and creamy. - 5:00 minutes
This time was the low-end of acceptable, and barely so. The egg had a nice amount of “sag” when plated, but lacked body. - 4:00 minutes
At this cook time, the white was not thoroughly cooked which might be fine for some, but not for me. It’s also about twice as difficult to peel. - 3:00 minutes
This cook time is so underdone that it wouldn’t even peel. Essentially, it’s a raw egg with a bit of cooked white around it.
Summary:
Dufresne’s 5:45 was perfect for his application in the video (in a consommé), but would be difficult to plate atop a bed of arugula, as it would tend to roll off.
For a slightly softer egg, I think the perfect cook time is probably between 5:15 to 5:30. It really is a fine line.
I’ve detailed Dufresne’s method below the pictures.
Dufresne’s method
Wylie Dufresne’s method is basic. The main difference is the addition of baking soda to the water (baking soda, not baking powder). The baking soda changes the pH of the water, affecting the shell and the inner membrane, causing them to retreat and separate from the inner white, making them easy to peel. Voila.
- Start with room temperature eggs.
- Take a pot big enough to hold the eggs you want to poach.
- Fill the pot with enough water to cover the eggs.
- Add a couple/three/four tablespoons of baking soda depending on the size of the pot; stir to dissolve.
- Put pot on high heat and bring to a boil.
When the water is boiling
- Put 5:45 (five minutes forty-five seconds) on the timer
- With a spoon, lower the eggs into the water
- Start timing
- Prepare an ice bath
- When the eggs are done, remove from boiling water and plunge into the ice bath
- Let them cool for a few minutes.
- Gently crack the shells and carefully peel them (doing this in water is sometimes easier)
If you want to serve the eggs warm, you can re-warm them in 185°F water for a few minutes. Then plate and serve.
I’ve found that the best way to poach an egg is to add a splash of malt vinegar to the water before adding the egg. It acts the same way as the baking soda in this method, but you poach the egg out of the shell. Fresh eggs are a must for poaching as well!
LikeLike
Yep. I’ve used vinegars (several types) as well for out-of-the-shell poaching, to varying degrees of success. I still have trouble consistently coming up with a nice, UFO-shaped poached egg, though. It works, just not as often as I’d like. I’m also using farm-fresh eggs (48 hours from the farm), which has helped, but again…consistency eludes me with out-of-the-shell methods.
This method has (so far) a close to 100% reliability factor, which is practically unheard of when dealing with ANYthing having to do with eggs.
Thanks for the info!
k
LikeLike