Poached eggs: three minutes, a sieve, and water that never boils
A dish that costs a fair bit in a café and takes a quarter of an hour at home — as long as you understand what is happening in the pan. Egg white comes in two layers: thick around the yolk and watery outside. It is the watery one that shreds into those ugly wisps. Pour the egg through a sieve and it is simply gone. The rest is water that trembles rather than boils, and exactly three minutes.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Sieve and water 6 min
- Poaching 6 min
- Toast 3 min
Step by step
0 / 6 donePour each egg through a sieve
Crack each egg separately into a fine sieve held over a bowl and rock it for 10 seconds. The thin, watery white drains through the mesh — that is exactly what makes wisps in the pan. What stays is a tight ball of thick white around the yolk. Tip it into a small cup.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 1 tbsp white vinegar · 1 pinch salt · 2000 ml water
TipA fresh egg has little watery white; an old one is mostly that. Which is why old eggs spread out no matter what technique you use — the sieve is how you stop it mattering.
The watery white stays in the sieveSet the water and the toast going
In a wide saucepan (not a tall pot) bring 2 litres of water to the boil, add the vinegar and a pinch of salt, then lower the heat until the surface only trembles and small bubbles cling to the bottom: about 85 °C. Meanwhile toast the bread and butter it.
Ingredients: 4 pcs sourdough bread · 30 g butter · ½ bunch chives · ½ tsp freshly ground pepper · 1 pinch flaky salt
TipBoiling water tears an egg apart in seconds. The vinegar speeds up the setting of the white at the surface, so the ball takes shape faster and holds it.
Fine bubbles on the base, the surface barely movingSlide the egg in at water level
Dip the rim of the cup into the water and tilt it so the egg slides out on its own, with no drop from height. Add them one at a time, two at most — four eggs go in two batches. Don't stir the water into a whirlpool — with a sieved egg it achieves nothing and only stretches the white.
TipIf an egg sticks to the base, ease it off with a slotted spoon after 20 seconds. Before that, leave it alone.
Cup at water level, the egg slides itself inPoach for exactly three minutes
Count 3 minutes from the moment the egg hits the water. At that point the white is set and the yolk is completely liquid. For a thicker, creamier yolk go to 3 minutes 30. Past four minutes the yolk begins to set and the whole point is lost.
TipTest with a fingertip: a finished egg is springy like a ripe plum, not soft like a bag of water.
Three minutes, no moreDrain on a towel
Lift it out with a slotted spoon onto a folded tea towel or kitchen paper for 15 seconds. The water clinging to the egg would soak the toast in seconds. You can trim a ragged edge with a small knife, but you don't have to.
Fifteen seconds on a towel keeps the toast crispServe at once
Set the eggs on the toast, scatter with chives, pepper and flaky salt. Serve immediately: a poached egg does not wait and cannot be reheated. Cut it open on the plate so the yolk soaks into the bread.
Ingredients: 4 pcs sourdough bread · 30 g butter · ½ bunch chives · ½ tsp freshly ground pepper · 1 pinch flaky salt
Straight from the towel onto the butter
Before you start
For several people at once
Poach the eggs ahead and drop them straight into cold water. Keep them in the fridge for no more than a day. To serve, dip them for about 1 minute in hot water at about 70 °C. Restaurants often do this, and it is hard to tell them from freshly poached.
Eggs Benedict
The same technique; instead of butter on the toast, a slice of ham or bacon and a spoon of hollandaise. Everything else is identical.
With spinach
A handful of spinach wilted 2 minutes in butter with garlic, squeezed dry and laid on the toast under the egg. Green, filling, still breakfast.
Why not cling film
An egg tied up in oiled film comes out as an egg boiled in a bag: rubbery, flat on one side. The sieve gives a shape film cannot.
