Once the basic cooking techniques are finished, we have to take the concrete ones. The truth is that as techniques we can have many, but we have decided to teach you the most common and specific we can do. Today is the turn of poached eggs, also known as poached eggs.
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Poached or poached eggs are cooked in hot water -almost boiling- and they seem easy to make, but they have their own and require technique to achieve a good result.You can use best silicone egg poachers to make it easier. In this regard, some MasterChef contestants to whom poached eggs or poached eggs have given more than a headache have something to say.
The poaching technique consists of cooking a product in a hot liquid, generally water, that does not exceed 80ºC, that is, it does not come to a boil but is very close to boiling (the boiling temperature of water is 100ºC) . Depending on the food we want to poach, we can do it in plenty of liquid, little liquid or in a water bath.
In the case of the egg, the poached is carried out in abundant liquid and in a saucepan on the fire. Something that is very simple if we know how to do it well, because the thing is not simply to put it in almost boiling water but it is necessary to respect some guidelines to get a poached egg in conditions.
Preparing the Water
The water in which we poach the egg has to carry a certain amount of vinegar, which helps the egg white to coagulate quickly and prevents it from spilling through the saucepan. The correct ratio is 10% vinegar to 100% water. It is not convenient to add salt to the water, something that we reserve for the final plating.
We bring the water to a boil along with the vinegar and, when it reaches the boiling point, remove the saucepan from the heat.
Cooking the Egg
We break an egg into a bowl or cup and put it in the hot water, allowing it to enter the container slowly. Then we slide the egg into the water and remove the bowl or cup.
Cover the saucepan and let the egg cook or poach for 3 minutes. After this time, the white will have already set and the yolk will be liquid. It is very important to use fresh eggs because the white of these is more compact and stays together.
Removing the Egg
We remove the poached egg with the help of a slotted spoon and immediately cool it to cut the cooking. If we are not going to consume it at the moment, we touch it up to remove the white beards that may have been left and submerge it with a slotted spoon in cold water with ice for a few seconds. This prevents further cooking from residual heat and the yolk from curdling. When we go to serve it, we will heat it with some hot sauce on top.
There is an alternative way of making poached or poached egg that guarantees the compact and collected shape of the white and a more lucid final appearance. It consists of wrapping the egg in lightly greased plastic wrap, closing it tightly, tying it with twine thread so that no liquid enters the package and submerging in the hot water.