Poached Egg Things

[S70JPS]

I have been given 2 rubber egg poachers. They are like little baskets. I have no idea how they work. Do I just crack the egg into them and float them on boiling water? Can't see that the result would be good though. However I'll give it a try in the morning. If iI've got this wrong could someone let me know what you are supposed to do with them?

[Digger]

Exactly that. I put the lid on the pan as well for the last minute or so.

[calibrax]

These things technically don't make poached eggs, as the egg is not touching the water. They make CODDLED eggs. The same applies to those so-called "egg poaching pans".

Not that there's a huge difference between poached and coddled though, both are delicious!

[slinky]

Butter then first to make cooked egg removal easier..

[selwonk]

slinky said:

Butter then first to make cooked egg removal easier..

Yep - or a quick smear of olive oil.

[Shaw Tarse]

selwonk said:

slinky said:

Butter then first to make cooked egg removal easier..

Yep - or a quick smear of olive oil.

I'd have thought that wouldn't be needed with silicone "poachers" though it was with the egg poaching pan mum used to have.

[slinky]

Shaw Tarse said:

I'd have thought that wouldn't be needed with silicone "poachers" though it was with the egg poaching pan mum used to have.

We do with ours, just to make life easier..

[selwonk]

Yep - definitely makes it easier to get them out.

[Rick101]

Get them fried in lard like a real man. ;-)

[RichB]

As the OP said these are like baskets perhaps they are different to standard egg poachers (coddlers)?

[Johnnytheboy]

I had some of these given to me as a present, they were horrible, and took ages to poach eggs. I'll stick to doing eggs in water with a dash of vinegar in.

[condor]

I picked up a pack of egg poachers from Aldi for £1 - was most amused to find they looked like paper coffee filter papers. Haven't got round to trying them out but don't expect much from them.

[lazy_b]

condor said:

I picked up a pack of egg poachers from Aldi for £1 - was most amused to find they looked like paper coffee filter papers. Haven't got round to trying them out but don't expect much from them.

I bought the same things from our local Aldi.

They do actually work (as long as you use fresh eggs), but my reaction was "why bother?". They aren't re-usable, and at 10p (or so) per egg aren't exactly cheap.

It's a lot easier - and cheaper - to poach the eggs in the conventional way (drop them into boiling water) or use an egg coddler.

[mattdaniels]

lazy_b said:

It's a lot easier - and cheaper - to poach the eggs in the conventional way

This.

A saucepan of simmering water is all you need. No gadgets, no clingfilm, no salt, no vinegar. Nothing else.

The _only_ "trick" to poached eggs - is to make sure you have fresh eggs.

It's taken me a while and a lot of failures to realise this.

[bomb]

Johnnytheboy said:

I had some of these given to me as a present, they were horrible, and took ages to poach eggs. I'll stick to doing eggs in water with a dash of vinegar in.

did you have a lid on the pan ?? If not, they take ages to cook.....

[Ultuous]

As above, need the lid on otherwise they take forever/ end up overcooked in places, raw in others.

I also tend to prefer the swirled water and vinegar method, but the silicon poachers are handy for multiple eggs and do a decent job once you have the 'knack' !

[Johnnytheboy]

bomb said:

Johnnytheboy said:

I had some of these given to me as a present, they were horrible, and took ages to poach eggs. I'll stick to doing eggs in water with a dash of vinegar in.

did you have a lid on the pan ?? If not, they take ages to cook.....

Boiling water from the kettle + dash of vinegar.

Get water spinning with a spoon, put eggs in, bring back to boil.

1 minute with heat on, one minute without.

Remove eggs and eat.

[mrsshpub]

selwonk said:

slinky said:

Butter then first to make cooked egg removal easier..

Yep - or a quick smear of olive oil.

Chilli oil's a good alternative to 'ordinary' olive oil, IMHO.

[devnull]

Got given these baskets as a gift. Found they need far too much water to keep them floating properly (and thus energy to get them going) and they arent really poached. Theyre also a pain in the arse to lift out of the water. If you're super stupid, the manufacturers will also sell you a matching handle to lift the baskets out.

[HootersGsy]

Another useful trick is to use a round pastry cutter, chefs ring or anything else you have lying around which looks similar. Just sit it in your pan (don't use so much water that its fully submerged) and drop the egg into the middle of it. Very useful for when your eggs are slightly less than fresh out of the chicken. Also means less clutter in the kitchen drawers.