How to Make Perfect Poach Eggs

I used to be afraid of poached eggs. Back when I was a working cook in Boston. Over the course of several weeks I got pretty damned good at poaching eggs.

But man would I love to have a time machine so I could show former me what current me knows.

Here’s a secret: When poaching eggs, you don’t have to cook them to-order. In fact, you can poach them up to five days in advance with no loss in quality. Not only that, but it takes just 2 minutes and zero skill to take those eggs from fridge-cold to liquid-yolk-ready-to-serve once brunch begins.

Step 1: Poach Many Eggs

I start by breaking a very fresh egg into a small cup, then transferring it to a wire mesh strainer and swirling it around.

This will drain away all the excess watery white, giving you a nice, tight egg shape that’ll poach much more cleanly.

Transfer the egg to a large bowl.

Then repeat with five more eggs. I like to cook mine a half dozen at a time, though once you get good and practiced, you can get away with cooking a few more at a time.

While you’re cracking eggs, you should have a big pot of salted water warming up on the stove. There’s no need to add vinegar to it—vinegar can help egg proteins coagulate a bit faster to prevent them from spreading out too much in the pan, but with our straining technique, that’s not really an issue. I prefer the cleaner flavor and superior texture you get from vinegar-free water.

Place a steamer basket insert inside the pot. The water should be just starting to bubble when you add the eggs.

Carefully tip the eggs into the basket, trying to drop them in one at a time. The closer you get to the surface of the water the better. The goal here is to space the eggs evenly so they have room to achieve a nice shape. Don’t worry, so long as you didn’t break them they won’t stick together in the water.

Once they’ve settled down and sat in the water for about 15 seconds, you can very gently start moving them and flipping them with a slotted wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. The more the eggs get flipped and rotated, the better their finished shape will be. That said, you want to be very careful not to break them.

After three to four minutes, the egg white should be fully set with the yolks still tender. You can test this by gently picking one up with a slotted spoon and poking the yolk with your fingertip. It should feel like a plump water balloon.