A Word on Eggs

A perfectly poached egg is hard to find, but is the perfect meal when executed correctly.

A poached eggs can make a great salad topper or sauce substitute. But it's just as well on top of a piece of bread.

Image credit: Photo by rommy ghaly via Creative Commons

Recommended by the Editor

Damn Decent Donuts

Don’t Be Chicken

By: Mecca Bos

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about eggs. Not just because I’m working on a best brunches feature for an upcoming issue of METRO, but because I think eggs are so important and so wonderful that they deserve their own food group.

My foodie friends and I have spent countless hours discussing eggs. To our minds, there is perhaps nothing more luscious than the gush of butterscotch-colored egg yolk, flowing down onto a plate. A perfectly poached egg is a welcome crown to almost any dish I can think of, adding a subtle richness, a perfect sauce, that none other than nature could have created. And yet, a perfectly poached egg is one of the most botched items I see coming out of kitchens—even good ones.

Even something as innocent as a couple of extra minutes under the heat lamp can ruin them. I’ve seen restaurants try and pass off fried eggs as poached, and maybe even worse, cook them in a mold, so that they come out tight and dry as a golf ball. Poking into a hard-cooked poacher is, in my book, heartbreak and makes all of those hollandaise calories seem moot. No, a poached egg should be buoyant, and stand up on the plate like a bubble—lively, and showing a bit of wobble. Of course, they’re such a delicate proposition, that many joints won’t even bother with them. They take finesse.

Conventional wisdom has you adding acid to the water in order to prevent the whites from escaping all over the pan, but even in restaurants where this is common practice, you have to keep a close eye on things—the water evaporates over time, while the acid does not, and your end result can end up tasting like salad dressing.

My best advice is to use high quality eggs, which tend to simply have a better inherent structure than commodity eggs, so they’ll hold up better in general. Also, take your time. In fact, consider pre-cooking poached eggs. This way, when its time to finish your dish with one, there will be no need to rush around the kitchen with fear and trepidation on your mind.

So, slip your (local, farm fresh eggs) one or two at a time into simmering water (acidify if you like, for an extra boost of confidence) and then as soon as the white has set, and not a second longer, slip them into an ice water bath. These can be kept inside of the refrigerator for a day or two until ready to use. When you’re ready for them, pop them into simmering water again, for just a few moments, and bang. Done.

And now that you’ve got your eggs nicely poached, what will you do with them? Consider placing one ever so gently atop a Caesar salad, as a substitute for a sauce over fresh pasta, or over braised pork for a riff on bacon and eggs. Or, forget all of that, and grill a piece of baguette. Dunk it in your yolk and revel in the easiest, best dinner you’ve eaten all week.

+ METRO's resident foodie Mecca Bos contributes to the magazine's food and drink section. She blogs for metromag.com between meals. See more of her work on her author page.