...I believe I've written to you before on this blog.
I like you. I really do. You are bright and attractive and seem a nice person. But I cannot make your recipes work.
Take poached eggs. I like poached eggs, but mine always emerge from cloudy water resembling tattered ghosts, trailing clouds of, well, egg. So I looked up your method. One minute simmering, you said, and then ten minutes off the heat. Set the timer, you said. I did. And what did I get at the end of all this? More tattered ghosts.
I'm disappointed, Delia. Really I am.
I'm now going to see what Jamie and Nigella have to say. I'm determined to crack this (ha) , one way or another.
BTW if anyone reading this has a foolproof recipe for poached eggs, I'd love to know about it
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Apparently if you stir the water really hard before adding the egg, so it's still swirling round, then that helps keep the egg all together.
ReplyDeleteTried that, Patsy!
DeleteThe water was spinning too fast. Or you had had them in the fridge.
DeleteDo you put a splash of malt vinegar in the water? I always do then have the water on a rolling boil, drop the eggs in, then turn the heat right down (but not off).
ReplyDeleteIf you want them really neat make them in a deep frying pan and crack the eggs into round metal biscuit cutters (or similar)that you've previously placed in the pan.
Good luck - I love poached eggs on toast (but without the marmite that my mum puts on the toast first!!)
I tried the vinegar and the cutters, but they spilled out from underneath...
DeleteBernadette - no Marmite? You must be a disappointment to your Mum! Have you told her?
DeleteI just made one yesterday and the yolk came out liquidy so I had to throw the whole thing out. I put a bit of vinegar but it didn't work, I guess I didn't cook it enough. Ask an Italian gastrosexual:) ha-ha, he'll probably know how to cook it! I am following you from Trapani, Sicily.
ReplyDeleteWelcome, Francesca. Join the club for non-egg-poachers!
DeleteI love Sicily, and I bet it's warmer than it is here!
I can't remember the last time I had a poached egg. One for the weekend :-)
ReplyDeleteI'll lett you know how my eggs turned out.
Yes - please do, Paula!
DeleteIt's the eggs themselves that are the key. They must be absolutely fresh. I simply boil the water and crack the egg in and it comes out perfect, but if the egg is more than two or three days old it isn't as good and a week-old egg isn't worth poaching.
ReplyDeleteBut Z, where, oh where, do I find such young eggs? Not here in Devizes!
DeleteMy Mum had a special egg-poaching pan, with room for water in the bottom and four little metal scoops that held the eggs. I thought everyone did it that way.
ReplyDeleteI must say, I'm thinking of getting one of those, English Rider. But some say the egss stick...?
DeleteI think that's cheating (although it produces the best eggs! - I used to use one and they were non-stick but I put a spot of butter in the bottom anyway).
DeleteYes, Ree Drummond can tell you at her blog, The Pioneer Woman. She has a recipe on there for Eggs Benedict and she tells you EXACTLY how to poach eggs. She's really good. She has her own TV show now, and it all started with her great blog!
ReplyDeleteShe is at www.pioneerwoman.com
Let me know if this helps you!
I'll go and have a look, Kay. Thanks!
DeleteThe only way I've ever been able to get perfect poached eggs is to order them at a restaurant. I am a far from perfect poacher myself.
ReplyDeleteK
That's the best idea yet, Kay!
DeleteMicrowave them! lol I don't eat them so sorry I cannot help. But I do know that practice makes perfect. Have fun. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteMicrowave...hmm. I think I'll give that a miss, Jeremy!
DeleteSteve used to make them in a deep frying pan, and they always turned out very neat. I have not tried to make them myself.
ReplyDeleteI've tried the deep frying pan, Meike. No good!
DeleteI have never been able to poach eggs without them looking all wispy and tatty - but I don't eat eggs now and as I was the only one that liked them poached, it's no longer a problem :-) x
ReplyDeleteOh well. I can't ask you then, Teresa!
DeleteAccording to that pair on Masterchef you put the egg, in its shell, into a cup of hot water for twenty seconds before breaking it into the water you're using for poaching. A splash of vineger ain the poaching water is good. Letting the egg sit in hot water makes it more solid to begin with so it doesn't 'ghost' in the pan. Not tried it myself. Have a severe allergy to eggs
ReplyDeleteNow that's an idea that makes sense, Lynne. Thank you!
DeleteAll I know is that eggs have to be really, really fresh to poach in this way (have you ever noticed that the albumen is very glutanous in fresh eggs, and becomes thinner as they get older?). So unless you have hens at the bottom of the garden I wouldn't bother.
ReplyDeleteNo hnes, Maggie. Though I'd love some.
DeleteI agree with English Rider - buy a poacher.
ReplyDeleteBut, Keith - that would be admitting defeat, wouldn't it?
DeleteI've never tried poaching them without a poacher (many years ago) but I believe a splash of vinegar in the simmering water is meant to help!
ReplyDeleteGuess what I'll be trying one day this week. It used to work for me but then in those days I didn't know that it wouldn't so I never had a problem. It's like béarnaise sauce: I didn't know it was hard to make so I never had a failure. I certainly used vinegar in the water - for the eggs. Perhaps you should convert to coddling, frying or scrambling instead Frances.
ReplyDeleteI have poached hundreds. The best way is to get a pan of water with salt and a good splash of vinegar. bring it to the boil, take it off the heat wiz it round till you have a whirlpool then drop the egg into the middle of the vortex.
ReplyDeleteIt will start to set you can then bring it back to simmer. If you need more than one then after a couple of minutes drop it into iced water. Repeat till you have the required number of eggs then just reheat them all together for a couple of minutes.
Fresh eggs are better.
Have fun.