We Found the Perfect Poached Egg Technique (How to Make it at Home) 

So, I am actually super passionate about this topic! I have also taken the very long and frustrating journey of trying oh-so-many egg poaching techniques. I have tried the ladle one. I have tried the strainer one. The ramekin one. With vinegar. Without vinegar. Jamie Oliver's plastic-wrap one. Heston Bleumenthol's upside-down plate. Even tried Jacque Pépin's method of cracking the egg straight into a simmering non-stick sauté. And by far the best results have been doing it in the swirling vortex water, and this is the only way that allows me to really get michelin star quality poached eggs. HOWEVER! I have made a couple of tweaks that I have found to be extremely helpful. Forgive this long comment, but I promise it is worth it. Firstly, I always strain the eggs in a fine-ish strainer for maybe up to a minute. You really don’t want to leave it in the strainer for too long, as I’ve found that the firmer egg whites can start to form to the sieve and sort of grip it, increasing the risk of damaging the white when transferring the egg back out. Also, please don’t swirl the egg around in the strainer like I see so many RU-vidrs do. You don’t need to, as this just increases the chances of damaging the firmer whites and creating even more stringy, wispy whites. You DEFINITELY don't want something as large as the strainer used in this video, but something to just get that really watery egg white out. The strainer they used in this video had very large holes, and I think they were actually losing (or at least damaging) some of the good egg white as a result. Then I transfer the egg to a little cup, just like they do. But, there is a real mistake they made in the video that I have learned to avoid; they didn't let the swirling water settle enough. Their pot size was perfect, as you really want a larger, wider pot, even for just one egg. This is because the larger pot allows for 2 things: (1) a large mass of water helps to keep the vortex moving, since a smaller pot will tend to retard too quickly, and (2) a larger pot allows for the vortex to exist with much less centrifugal force per revolution. A smaller pot would have to have a vortex with far higher RPM to achieve the same force on the egg. BUT, the Fallow guy didn't let the vortex settle in the big pot before adding the egg, and you can see this because the centrifugal force pulled the egg out of the center of the vortex and started to push it to the sides, which creates a sort of oblong, football shape (well, AMERICAN football). The trick is to let the water vortex slow down a bit more before dropping the egg into the center. That way the egg will stay in the center more readily. But there are more tricks up my sleeve. I also let the water come up to a boil before dropping in the egg. Normally you want to avoid this because of 2 reasons: firstly, the turbulent water will damage the egg, and secondly, even gentler bubbles from a bare simmer will cause little dimples in the surface of the egg white, which is not ideal. So what I do is place the pot over a strong burner until it boils, then I move the pot off the burner and the bubbles all go away, but the water is still really near boiling temperature. I swirl the vortex, and let it settle until it is very gentle. THEN drop the egg into the center and set a 1-minute timer. Now this is the part that I invented and have never seen anyone else do. As soon as the egg drops into the center and slowly starts the rotate, it will settle to the bottom and eventually stop spinning due to the friction of the bottom. I immediately take the handle of a spoon or something similar, and I dip it into the center of the water above the egg, maybe only an inch down into the water, and I start to quickly swirl that water in tiny circles using only my wrist (I do this in the same direction as the swirling water). This focused swirling motion from the top of the water helps to create a tiny vortex that gently reaches down to the egg and gently lifts it up off the bottom, as well as slowly keeps the egg turning. This is especially important during the first minute of cooking, as this is the time when the egg's shape really gets set and locked in. For that first minute, I will start and stop the swirling motion back and forth, keeping a careful eye on the egg to make sure that no violent forces are acting upon it, and trying to keep the water steadily holding the egg in the center, without letting it rest on the bottom long enough to form a flat spot. You want to be moderate with this technique; if you put too much spinning on the egg, it will actually form a near perfect sphere, which while kinda interesting, is still not my favorite shape. I think it’s still best to have just a slight sort of natural “squatness” to it. After the minute is up, I can stop the little swirling technique and return the pot to the strong burner and quickly bring the water back up to temperature with simmering or a gentle rolling boil. This is just to speed up the rest of the cooking so as to not waste time. If your burners aren’t strong enough to induce some bubbling right away, then you can just gently take your slotted spoon and shift around the water near the egg, helping it to sort of float around in the water without resting on the bottom. Now that the outer layer of the egg's shape is mostly determined, it can handle some more turbulent movement and bubbles, since no divots can form on the whites. Additionally, on top of the egg cooking faster, the boiling water is important because it helps to keep the egg from sitting too still on the bottom, which not only makes for a weird shape, but it also forms a very uneven cook, and you'll end up with a rubbery white spot or a yolk that is too cooked on one side. Once the egg has poached for about 3.5 to 4 minutes, I take it out and either serve immediately, or place in an ice bath to be heated up later. Trust me and try this, and you will end up with beautiful little mozzarella balls for poached eggs, and they will go beautifully atop any dish as proud little garnish, or a succulent plump, gooey ball on some eggs benedict. And yes, I will totally admit that this technique is not very efficient as you can really only do one egg at a time with this method, but if you are only making a small batch, or really just want those extra impressive poached eggs for a fancy occasion, this is the method that will wow your guests. EDIT: Another commenter brought up the brilliant idea of letting poached eggs rest to finish cooking outside the water. I think this is a fantastic idea and I am going to try this next time to try to achieve an even softer white on these poached eggs. Next time, instead of cooking the whites through and shocking in an ice bath, I’m going to try cooking until the whites are almost done but still not fully set in their centers. Then I’ll put it out of the water and leave on a paper towel for a minute or so before serving or transferring to the ice bath. My theory is that this will achieve an egg that doesn’t have a rubbery white, but also avoids that undercooked goopy white in the center. Can’t wait! Also, one last piece of advice: I prefer to do this with XL eggs just to compensate for the slight loss of white due to straining. I definitely wouldn’t go any smaller than a Lg chicken egg. And lastly, don’t feel bad if everything is going well and suddenly your next egg looks like a totally cloudy disaster. Every once in a while you just get a bad egg where the egg white really falls apart instantly. This can happen, especially with cheaper commercial eggs. Just strain out what you can from your water, move past it, and try again.

Seriously love this little experiment! It's gotta be fun working with you guys in the kitchen! Thanks for this video

I work in a cafe and I must poach 100s of eggs a shift sometimes. I've never used a ladle, cup or sieve to hold the egg before dropping it. Usually, just a couple nips or vinegar, get the water to a rolling boil. Then get a vortex going and break the egg on the side of the pot, and maneuver over the water as close as you can get without burning yourself and split the rest of the egg shell. 2 and 1/2 minutes and she's done. You only have to worry about the white separating from the yolk if the eggs are old or not cold. Important to always use fresh and cold eggs.

I love this channel. Thanks chef!

I love to see them do a video poaching multiple eggs at a time. The vortex method only works when cooking one at a time really

I do the first one but recently I saw a tip he used on the third one - sive it to remove the excess "water" but cook it just like the first one. It works for me and most of the times I dont bother to swirl it. Just sive it, pop in water with a bit of vinegar and it turns out great. My daughter loves it

I used to own chickens and can confirm that the freshness of the eggs makes a huge difference :) With very fresh eggs you don’t even need to swirl or add vinegar etc, you can just use a ladel or cup and gently drop it into still, simmering water 👍🏻

Forget all this vinegar, swirl effort. Put the egg in the water for 10-15 seconds whilst still in the shell. Then crack it in. The outside layer is just cooked enough to hold it in shape whilst the rest cooks. You can do as many as your pan can hold. Game changer.

Interesting, thanks Chef for sharing!

Great video and great advice. All I do is plop mine from a bowl in a just less than boiling pan for 2 minutes max and the white I don't like gets cut off with my hovering spoon and after draining on kitchen towel i turn them over and pop them on a bit of toast and season them and everyone loves them. It's maybe just more luck than judgement. And as much as I love vinegar I don't want my eggs to taste acidic, but I'll give that a bash and see how they turn out. Cheers guys.

Love the experiment, as a cookery teacher we never use vinegar, just lightly salted simmering water & no vortex.. Fresh eggs are definitely the key though. Perfect poached eggs every time. Love the videos guys.

Ladle method looks promising, will have to try it

I’ll be honest: I’ve tried all of these before and I finally realised a few things: - I want my eggs fast. - I want a lot of them. - My stovetop is rubbish. So now I just sieve very fresh eggs, transfer to a measuring cup and gently slide them from the partially-submerged cup into a shallow pan of almost-simmering water with roughly a tablespoon of vinegar. If I need to keep them for a minute, I just use cold tap water. The sieve gets rid of the straggly bits, the freshness plus gentle motion into shallow water prevent it from breaking apart and the vinegar and heat make it firm up on the outside super fast to further reduce damage.

That was lovely. Thank-you. I did my aunt's poached eggs like that (#1) and she loved them. (love that small boning knife!!)

I have found the key to it is the sieve. Drain off the first bit of liquid and straight into a the whirl pool of water sitting just below a simmer - no vinegar needed. 3mins and it’s spot on every time with no stringy tails 👍🏽

My challenge with swirling vortex is if you want to do 4 of those it's pretty difficult when sing a standard size pot

At my restaurant we sous vide our eggs at 63C for 45mins! Ice bathed, cracked into a bowl, then poached at a rolling boil for 3minutes. Perfect poach everytime :)

The humble poached egg on toast is a comfort breakfast. It's got everything, just don't forget the salt. I don't mind it with a touch of proper Chinese Chilli oil too.

Holy- I'm on time for one of these! I've been out the kitchen for a few years but watching you guys smash it has me wanting to get back in against my better judgement! Would love to come and try some of your stuff one day!

I’ve always used the vortex method great results every time nice golf ball shape

I poach eggs sometimes for Sunday morning breakfast for the family. I use a sous vide, ATK way, 167f for 12 minutes, in the shell. Mainly so that all 8 eggs are ready, and perfect at the same time.

Another nice method is pre-steaming the eggs so you a) basically only need to heat up and finish cooking the eggs and b) have a really pretty egg form (it basically after dropping keeps the form of the egg shell). This method really helps standardising the form of the egg and gets rid of the vortex.

I like a decent poached egg for breakfast sometimes. If I visit London in the future I would like to try your restaurant for lunch or dinner

Awesome guide, consice and gets the point across. My only problem with poached eggs are that its a lot of effort for essentially a boiled egg haha, guess it makes sense in commercial kitchen when you have loads of orders and you can just set up the stations.

I only just found the bath trick about a month ago and it works perfectly for me everytime, I don't use the sieve though, just crack and put in the water and vinegar bath and leave it while I shower or prep the rest of breakfast. Delicious every time.

I watched Ramsay cook a poached egg and did it first try. I create a vortex as you should, and when the water is pretty hot, not boiling, pour or crack the egg inside and control the stir until white is cooked.

Brilliant 👏👏

Great job Chef .... If you want Two eggs can I still use the vortex method ?? or is a one at a time deal ?

The best way ive found as a long time brunch sous, Cook the egg at 63.5°C for 45mins inside the shell, ( do this by the flat in the combi ) then after cooling immediately in an ice bath crack into simmering water with 5% white wine vin and 2% salt for 2min 30sec for perfect medium. Straight out of the combi its a perfect poached soft. Obviously you can take it as far as you want past medium if you want to ruin it and have a hard yolk

I wish they’d specify whether they are using room temp eggs or from the fridge. Makes a big difference in timing

My only question! More than 1 egg, best method ? The wife wants 2 eggs and so do I, the classic way just makes a mess when cooking more than 1. Love the content😁

I poach eggs at home a lot (love eggs Benedict) and I would try the ladle but you have to do it one at a time. I can do 2-4 with the first method. I absolutely would not soak an egg in oil and vinegar before poaching.

Poached egg pan works best imo. Mine has 4 small cups and the eggs are perfect every time. Not that I would ever trim mine when I used to use water bath, with the poached egg pan there is never anything hanging off. Shape is exact same on every egg.

Hey jack and will big fan of your channel any chance of showing how to make Espagnole sauce i would love to make a good one

Ladel it is then! good stuff, definetely looks like the best method

Never had problems poaching eggs, and never put this much thought into it...

I used to do hundreds of poached eggs every brunch at a Thames restaurant and , I found this technique on my own one day when I mixedt 1/1 ratio of water to vinegar, bring it to boil then lower the fire temperature so that it simmers. I was spinning with a whisk the water , and had the eggs prepared separately in advance. Now the trick that brought them all perfect every time (if the eggs were quite fresh is that I had a very tall pan, 3 times taller than the one in your tutorial. They all came in a "water droplet shape". The excess of egg white which was lighter than the one falling on the bottom I was removing it with the spider. Try it , it is actually a mix of all three methods.

Epicurious 101 has a similar method to #2 for doing bulk poached eggs with a couple of differences. Leave in a mixture of equal white vinegar and water for 10 minutes. Then tip the lot into a pan of water. I was sceptical but it does work a treat.

I poach eggs in a large frying pan in about 3cm of water and it works perfectly. Get the water to just about boiling with a bit of vinegar, put the egg in, put the lid on for a bit (not necessary though). Take the egg out when all the white is cooked. Easy.

Great demo!

"We found the perfect poached egg technique" but they disagree on the results 😂 But other than that, thanks for video! On the way to try that ladle technique!

What Alain ducase book was it my G? Also any other books you recommend for cooking

Very fancy and nice result.But I'm a chef in a busy restaurant. If they had to do them this way, my day staff would still be pushing plates by 4pm. What we do is cook a bunch of eggs (48) in advance, flash them in ice water, store them, then put a few at a time in a water bath with a sous-vide agitator. Funny thing about eggs, the white and yellow don't cook at the same temp. So you can keep your poached eggs nice and runny for a long while this way. I just have an extra pot of simmering water for extra doneness. Nice, clean kitchen though.

I love poached eggs, but they can be a pain to prepare, but I discovered a quick and easy way to do it that's works great for me. It might be heresy to some, but it works. Instead of heating up a whole pot of water, I use a small white ramekin like the ones used for crème brûlée. Fill it about a 1/4 way with water and a splash of vinegar and simply pop it in the microwave for about a minute. Time would depend on your microwave. But the egg cooks as the water heats and you have a perfectly shaped poached egg to slide out into a slotted spoon to drain and there you go. I've been cooking for many years and whatever works, I don't look down on, including a microwave for a quick and easy breakfast and you can't tell the difference in the end result.

Need to try test no 2 🥚

Use that ladle technique for over 20 years, it's always perfect

I prefer the Ducasse method because watching a vortex is just fun

the method with the soak in 50/50 you don't use a slotted spoon to take it out you use a regular spoon with some of the liquid and place it into the pot. Its ideal for doing multiple eggs at once

How is the vortex method used for multiple eggs? I spent ages trying to perfect poached eggs as my wife and I love eggs Benedict. The method I found works best for me is to use ramekins with a splash of vinegar in each and also a splash of vinegar in the water. Then with the water just off the boil (in a deep pan) in one smooth movement tip each egg in for about 3.5 mins. Burford browns have got to be the best eggs in the UK off the Supermarket shelf, such a beautiful yolk.

Classic method is classic for a reason. I've seen the vinegar bath one but question that it's useable at scale, like do a hundred eggs like that during a brunch service? The ladle one just reminds me of those goofy "poaching cups" you put in the microwave.

I do the first but never swirl the water. Fresh enough eggs stay together and imo easier to do multiples at once without the vortex.

Half-fill a teacup with water, crack an egg into it, stick it in the microwave for 60 seconds. No vinegar, no faff, perfect poached egg.

What is that zig zag liner paper. If I use that I will be one step closer to being like these guys right?? Good video as always.

Chef, what is your opinion on cracking the egg into a sieve and allowing the watery albumen to drain away prior to poaching??

5:30 im training to become a chef and experimented with the vinegar method, not a fan, i understand it firms up the cells so it doesn't fall apart when your water is too hot, but naaah. it's too much effort for something that isn't consistent enough. that ladle method i have yet to try, but i saw a video of someone doing it on facebook this week actually and it seems like a good technique. they've basically copied those silicon cups you can buy, which keep your egg from touching the bottom of the pan. PS what alain ducasse book did you reference? :)

I find the first method you showed us, poach for 3 minutes. 2 minutes over the heat and then remove from the heat for the last 30 seconds. 🙏😎👊

I just wait for a slight boil and then gently crack the egg right into the water and hope for the best!😅 The closer it's dropped into the water, the less strings come out. Works pretty good for me!

what's the name of ducasse's book that you read? great video, chef. classic method is the only way.

Have had decent results with Heston method also. 80 degree water so zero bubbles and you can cook a few at a time

I just GOTTA put up a video of how I did mine! No waste, SO much easier to do, and awesome. Nice comparison though. Thanks.

classic every time

I'm gonna start calling my poached egg, yolky bois 🤣 love you guys!

I was looking for tips to do this on a basis at my workplace. Definitely the comment section was much more helpful than the video.

The funny thing is, if you make it on pan, you can do everything with it. I understand the whole thing bout pouched eggs. I do. But I like it more made on the pan. Eggyolk as warm torrent. Love that and could make it almost every morning.

'New wave' never seen before - looking at my multi egg poaching pan that's been in the family for decades...

I poach them like my dad. Melt butter in pan snd pour in milk ,salt and pepper to taste drop in egg and ladle the milk over the yolk to whiten the top of yoke. Put egg on top of toast and ladle milk on it .. omg so good

What kind of chicken laid those eggs? The yolks look very rich compared to what I buy at the store. Are they raised in a high sulfur area?

I use a large pan of water, bring it up to a simmer, so that it has bubbles just breaking on the base of the pan, add a teaspoon of salt as a binding agent, egg in for 2 and a half minutes, comes out perfect every single time.....no swirling, no vinegar.

I like poached egg on turkish way, that was served to sultan for breakfast. Poach egg and in pan heat olive oil and turn off heat, add smoked paprika powder. Mix greek yogurt with chopped garlic, mix an put on plate and smear, put poached egg and on top pour mix of olive oil and smoked paprika powder. Salt to taste. Done

Option 1. I'm not sure if this is being done this way purely because it's an easier way of showing us the viewer with a big pan, or whether this is just an incredibly wasteful way of cooking an egg. .chap gets the biggest saucepan you can. fill it with a gallon of water. Then pretty much boil it. and then put one egg in it to poach. 😊

I work in a hotel and we steam the eggs in the shell for 36mins at 63c then put them in an ice then you can store them in the shell and just cook for a few minutes in boiling water when needed

Never using vortex as I like to coke several eggs at a time. I am curious if chefs actually does this one egg at a time in a restaurant?

Isn’t the 2nd one similar in approach to the Arzak egg?

My dad taught me the classic with his own twist. Bring water to the boil, add salt and a teaspoon of vinegar, then create the vortex. Drop the eggs in and bring back to the boil. Watch the water rise, then remove pan from heat. Hold pan and Watch the water sink, then return to heat (it takes seconds!), then repeat twice more. Turn off heat and remove eggs. I’ve been doing it for over 50 years and get very few failures, but even a second’s loss of concentration can result in a boil-over, and I’ve done that a few times!! 😂

In my restaurant, we go through a lot of poach eggs in one service, so there's no way we can do them ala minute. The go-to method is to sous-vide them in 64 degree water for about 55 minutes pre-service. When it time, bring water to boil then turn of the heat, crack and soak the egg for about 2 mins. The success rate is about 90%

I used to pre-cook hundreds of poached eggs per day when I was working in a big hotel. The best technique I found (for large batches) was to get a very large pot (in my case multiple ones at the same time), fill it with water and a dash of vinegar. Then I would crack about 20-30 eggs in a container, making sure not to burst any yolk. It is very important that the eggs are as fresh as possible, and fridge cold, so that they stay separated in the container. When the water starts to boil gently, do a gentle swirl with a whisk and drop them all in one by one in about 15-20 seconds. As soon that they set, strain and drop them in an ice bath, and they’re ready for service. Now whenever someone ordered poached egg I just had to drop it in boiling water again for about a minute or 2

I like poaching eggs for a number of people using a teflon muffin pan sitting inside a roasting pan half way filled with boiling water. Then just cover the roasting pan with a sheet pan. All poached eggs then turn out perfectly round.

The two biggest factors are… How fresh the egg is and also, the more eggs you add will reduce the temperature, resulting in a longer cooking time. 🎉

Vortex method seems pretty flawed for multiple eggs at a time though...

That's the most hypnotic egg I've ever seen, the way it was spinning with the albumen forming a neat spiral in the centre.

I think the best (for me) is a 1/4" of water in a rocks tumbler (2" dia x 2" deep) with an egg broken into it and microwaved for 30-35 seconds (experiment with your particular microwave to achieve the doneness you want). Empty the tumbler with a large spoon, the watery albumin will be left behind.

Super fresh eggs & you'll have no problem, If they're supermarket eggs, method 2 works really well.

Another method learn in culinary school, we use cling wrap to hold the egg, just throw them into simmering water, unseal and its perfect

In always strain then swirl add. This lets me cook a large quantity at once. They almost always come out beautifully and at the same time.

Seriously thank you for not contaminating the food with plastic gloves!

Guys i'm not from London, but i will come to try yours menu☺️☺️☺️

Bring the water to just to the point of small bubbles starting to form in the bottom kill the heat put your eggs in .tap the side of the pot with a spoon the water will shimmer watch the eggs cook the egg the white will firm up from the outside in when it gets to the yoke scoop them out

Two other methods I know of. First is an extension of the classic method, but you use a pot deep enough that the white sets as it sinks, so you don't need to create a vortex. This method is more for commercial kitchens than home obviously. The second isn't so much poaching, but you can crack the egg into a cup lined with cling wrap, then tie the clingwrap around the egg and poach that. It's a pretty fool proof method and great if you are poaching multiple eggs at home and not confident in your technique.

Which one would you use if you were serving poached eggs? @Fallow

Yeah I’ve tried a bunch of the other techniques but I always prefer the classic, and it’s probably the easiest. Just need fresh eggs.

this is wonderfull my breakfast aslmost every mornin is poached eggs on toast with tobasco but i feel these don't even come close to what i'm used to. Many years ago i bougth an aluminium egg poacher from a charity shop(it's a small pan bain-marie with 2 cups you poach eggs in) No effort. No hassle easy poached eggs?!!!

YOO fallow could u possibly make steak Au poivre with chips and bearnaise sauce 😳

My mum had a pan with 4 steel dishes suspended over the water. Crack eggs into buttered dish, set on stove for 3-5 minutes depending on how set you wish yolks to be. Far faster and simpler. Some years later bought a plastic two egg microwave dish. Crack eggs into each greased side. Prick yolks with toothpick. Cover, put in microwave for 90 seconds.

I love poached eggs and do them all the time at home, all that work is not needed for a single home cook, nor even a family of four. The key is just a good non skillet, warm water and a little salt and vinegar maybe a little oil or butter if you don't have a good skillet. Gently put in two eggs and cover and turn on heat to high med wait until almost boil over (it's a quick cook). Immediately shut off and remove from heat. (prepare the toast or muffin during the heating process.) Remove with slotted spatula (can hit it with some oil spray if you must) and dab on paper towel to remove moisture. Place on muffin and bacon and top with hollandaise -Done. I have been doing it this way for 50 years, since I was 10. Boiling all that water is a waste of time and resources.

The way you cook it in the ladel is everything you did but when you deep it in the ladep in the water you should tilt the ladel gently and pour the egg in the water after it statrts setting .

I place cling wrap over a bowl, crack an egg inside then tie it up making a pouch works perfect and you can infuse the poached egg with garlic/salt/pepper Gamechanger.

he was right about comment's on the vinegar soaked one, you are meant to leave it until the whites start going really cloudy, those hadn't even started.

I do mine perfectly in a ramekin in my Airfryer …oil the ramekin, half fill it with boiling water and break the egg into it !! X

When doing a dozen or so at a time the food network method works a treat. However instead of putting the eggs in individually just pour the whole eggs and Vinny mix into boiling water. This reduces the temp to a bare simmer so bring to the side of the stove and leave 2 or three mins. Remove and use as required or keep in ice water.

When we did big batches of poached eggs. We put them in the sous vide container on 68-72°C for about 50-60 minutes and then cracked them a la minute. Obviously not 100% as good as vortex-egg but still a decent enough outcome