Poached and Soft-Boiled Eggs: What You Want To Know!

There are a couple of things you want to consider for perfect poached and soft-boiled eggs.

Egg Poaching Technique

The most important thing in poaching is the use of absolutely fresh eggs. It is almost impossible to get even poached eggs without this.

Fill a sauté pan with boiling salted water—add one-third ounce of salt per quart of water—and add a splash of vinegar. Crack the eggs directly into the boiling portion of the water.

So as not to overcrowd the pan, and to have evenly cooked eggs, place no more than eight to ten eggs in the pan at any one time. For maximum benefit, poach no more than six at one time.

Once in the water, let it come to a gentle simmer.

Eggs are set when the whites have completely coagulated around the yolks, but are still in the shape of raw eggs and can be manipulated without breaking.

This may take about three minutes.

Pull the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon, briefly lower in cold water, snip off irregular whites if desired, and let them poach in moderately hot water until service.

Cooking Soft-Boiled Eggs

Soft-boiled eggs, like poached eggs, must be very fresh.

To cook them evenly, place the eggs in a colander with big holes for water drainage.

This way they can be lowered into and pulled out of the water at the same time.

Bring the water to a boil.

Lower the eggs as described and cook for six minutes after the water returns to a boil.

Take the eggs from the water, drop them for a few seconds in cold water, and peel off their shells carefully.

Let the eggs stay in warm, moderately salted water until it is time to serve them.

How to Serve Poached & Soft-Boiled Eggs?

There are several ways of serving these eggs:

On rusks from the hollowed-out protectors of breadcrumbs, shaped to your fancy—the points of a paring knife will make impressions—and fried in clarified butter. Oval-shaped rusks are generally used for poached eggs; soft-boiled eggs are stood upright on round rusks.

On small pastries—oval puff pastry for poached eggs and puff pastry crowns and petite patties for soft-boiled eggs.

Set on garnished borders—forcemeat, or whatever garnish is called for in the recipe. These borders may be piped or molded by hand into oval or round shapes and may be plain, indented, poached, or browned in the oven.

On tartlet shells, filled to enhance the presentation form of the eggs.

Miscellaneous Points:

Poached or soft-boiled eggs served on fried rusks on puff pastry or tartlets are to be glacé with sauce before placing on the plate.

And bear in mind that eggs must be well drained before you sauce them.

Having given you the basics, let’s talk about recipes.

Each of the recipes works equally well for poached or soft-boiled eggs.

17 Poached Egg Ideas You'll Enjoy!
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