Watched Eggs Never Poach
May 18th, 2005 by becAbout a month ago, I had my first poached egg. I don’t know why I’d never had a poached egg before; I think it has something to do with growing up Jewish in New York, where “brunch” is loosely translated as, “what kind of cream cheese do you want on your bagel?” I thoroughly enjoyed my first poached egg and made a note to try it at home – how hard could it be?
Soon after, I saw Clotilde’s post on ratatouille and her recommendation that leftovers be served with a poached egg. I’m sure you know where this is going. I had my mom pick up this egg poacher (discovered on deb’s site) – and before you get all, if she has to have her mom buy things at Crate and Barrel, no wonder she can’t poach an egg, I’d like to point out that (a) there’s no C&B in philly, (b) my mom lives down the street from a C&B, and (c) my inability to buy an egg poacher has nothing to do with my inability to poach an egg! Plus, it’s not like I requested something totally ludicrous, like an asparagus steamer.
I cooked the ratatouille for the requisite hour and a half (a long time for me, though apparently, a much-shortened version of the real thing) and then started on the poaching. And a minute passes. Then two. A poached egg is only supposed to take three minutes and the egg didn’t seem to be poaching much at all. Scratch that – the bottom seemed to be cooked, but wasn’t spreading to the top. I tried again, and again. Finally, after thirty minutes and three eggs the whole thing appears to be cooked. Of course, by that time, I’d gotten so hungry waiting for the egg that I’d already eaten the ratatouille (excellent), some rice, a piece of cheese, three pickles and my roommate’s strawberry poptarts. So I did what any sane person would do.
“Mom? It’s me. I think the egg poacher is defective.”
May 19th, 2005 at 10:01 am
Hi Bec. I’m Josh’s mom. You know, you don’t need an egg poacher to poach an egg. I did a google search and found instructions at http://www.sallys-place.com. For some reason, I can’t seem to insert the link here, but you’ll be able to find it. This is the method I’ve used and it always seems to work fine. Your ratatouille sounds great… I’ll have to try that and then poach some eggs.
May 19th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
Hehe…she likes eggs.
May 19th, 2005 at 1:57 pm
hi lisa,
i found the poached eggs link here; i think the crucial missing element was the saucepan lid! i’ll have to try it again, sally’s way. the egg poacher is more a fun toy. the more into cooking i become, the more gadgets i want – probably the outcome of life with an engineer. i’m sure you can relate!
the ratatouille is great, and i highly recommend Clotilde’s site for some serious and tasty food writing.
May 20th, 2005 at 10:52 am
update: i tried sally’s method last night, and it worked! for the most part. i need to refine my technique a little. stay tuned for future adventures in egg poaching! and thanks, lisa!
May 20th, 2005 at 10:28 pm
Hi Bec,
I can definitely relate to the whole gadget thing. It’s genetic in my case, as I’m sure you know since you know Josh. I think it’s a dominant trait, doesn’t seem to skip generations or be sex linked. Enjoy the eggs, and thanks for the Clotilde link.
–Lisa
July 27th, 2005 at 9:40 pm
PLEASE, it’s a long story how I’ve discovered this post 2 months late – but nevertheless, I was doing a technorati search and found it. I’ve sinced ditched the $2 egg poacher. I bought it because Clotide (from C&Z) swore by it and it worked for a while, but I ended up after a month or so not liking the seal it made against the metal. Have switched to pastry rings in 1″ of boiling water in a saute pan – works perfectly every time!
Er, I’ll shush about the poaching thing now.