A Very Brief History of Egg-Poaching

The best breakfast ever consists of a fried wedge of polenta, tangy black beans, a slice of avocado and a poached egg. All of these things are fairly easy to prepare; but when we come to the egg, we reach a bit of a snag. Poaching eggs seems intimidating. However, we contend that as with so many age-old processes for which we’ve invented “helpful” gadgets, poaching eggs only seems difficult because we’ve been told so.

Lodged somewhere in our collective unconscious is the image of some infomercial bride pulling out her hair because she can’t make poached eggs and her husband just loves them. Then some angel who looks like Frankie Avalon appears with one of these gadgets, and everything is okay (Or maybe that’s Grease).

Traditionally, poached eggs were made by boiling some water and then swirling it “in a mad vortex” with the back of a wooden spoon (it’s phrases like “mad vortex” that give egg-poaching a bad rep). Then there were the days of the aforementioned gadgets, otherwise known as the Eighties. These days it’s popular to add some plain-ish vinegar to the poaching water--the vinegar helps the outer part of the white to coagulate quickly, preventing those stringy bits of white feared by egg-poachers the world round.

More important than any of these techniques is using a high-quality egg. Because we are blessed in Seattle with not being surrounded on all sides by an endless expanse of city; things like fresh, local eggs are easy to come by, either at our tremendous farmer’s markets, or if you’re lucky, from someone who actually keeps chickens. Or in our case, know someone who knows someone who got us those beautiful eggs in the picture. But never fear, if a farm egg is not in your future, a recently purchased egg from the store will work just fine.

For poaching our eggs, we employ a combination of the methods, some practical and some for nostalgic effect. They are outlined after the break. Enjoy.