POACHED EGGS
What would eggs Benedict be without perfect soft-poached
eggs, their snowy whites napped in a robe of gloriously
thick, buttery real hollandaise and liquid, golden yolks
ready to ooze out over your ham and into the nooks and
crannies of your buttered and toasted English muffin?
Well, we already know all about soft-boiled eggs, and a
poached egg is essentially a soft-boiled egg cooked in the
nude (that’s the egg, not the cook). This does, of course,
introduce all kinds of headaches. How does one keep the
white from spreading in the pot of water? How do you
prevent the yolk from breaking? How do you get the whole
darn thing to keep its shape? Some recommend wrapping
eggs in plastic wrap before lowering them into the water, to
help them retain their shape. The eggs end up with ugly,
creased surfaces. Other high-tech methods require hours-
long baths in perfectly temperature-controlled water to
partially solidify the eggs, to help them keep their shape
while poaching. I’m not prepared to wake up an extra hour
early just to poach my eggs.