A perfectly poached egg can be a meal on its own, the heart of eggs benedict, or a delicious compliment to sandwiches and salads. But they’re intimidating to make and it’s really tough to get just right — a silky, white exterior and gooey, liquid yolk inside. People often use the traditional (and painstaking) water bath poaching method – swirling the water, dropping the egg in and crossing their fingers for a smooth poached egg. Who wants the fate of their egg to be in the hands of luck? We don’t, so we decided to make an egg poacher that makes poaching less intimidating and less about chance.
Meet OXO’s Silicone Egg Poacher: it’s the best way to poach eggs for home chefs.
How Does It Work
To understand how to poach an egg with the Poacher, it’s important to first understand the traditional water bath method. For this method, you must slowly and very carefully drop your egg into a whirlpool of water. The whirlpool helps the egg whites gather around the yolk until they’re stabilized. But, this is all dependent on the drop – and that’s hard to control! With the Egg Poacher, the funnel shape allows your egg to gently enter the water. The egg slides down the walls of the funnel, slowing down the process of delivery into the water bath. The yolk goes first, and then the white gathers all the way around.
The bottom half of the poacher has a hole pattern that allows water to flow freely all around the egg. This lets heat transfer directly from the water to the egg, rather than going through a wall. If you’ve ever tried to poach an egg by resting it on something in hot water, the egg gets steamed, and it’s just not the same silky texture you want for poached eggs. We chose silicone because of its flexibility (the Poachers can collapse and stack for compact storage) and high-heat resistance – after all, the poacher is sitting in boiling water, but you can safely remove it from the water by grabbing the silicone tab with tongs. Another plus: eggs can be pretty sticky and a pain to clean off spatulas or pans, but this guy can go in the dishwasher.
Relentless Testing
We tested over 50 dozen eggs in 20 different sizes that ranged from 40 grams to 76 grams in weight. We also made sure we looked at eggs from all over the world – Japan to Brazil and everywhere in between – so that someone picking up a jumbo egg in the U.S. would have the same poaching experience and perfect outcome as someone picking up a small egg in France. We also used the Poacher on everything from gas stoves to electric coil cooktops to electric flat topsand induction cooktops – to make sure it works for everyone, everywhere.
The Method for the Best Poached Eggs
For best results, we like to fill a pot of water (we’ve made it easy for you by adding a fill line on the Poacher!) and add a splash of white vinegar, which helps to solidify the egg white. Then, bring the water to a simmer (below a rolling boil) and crack an egg into the center of the Poacher. We’ve come across many different yolk preferences when it comes to poached eggs, so you should experiment with poaching times to see what you like best. Here’s a handy guide to help get you started: Medium Eggs – between 3:00-3:30 minutes Large Eggs – between 3:15-3:45 minutes XL Eggs – between 3:30-4:00 minutes Jumbo Eggs – between 4:00-4:40 minutes After about 30 seconds, when the white has settled, you can lift the Poacher out of the water. If your pot is big enough, you can have at least two eggs going at once – because who wouldn’t want two poached eggs on their avocado toast in the morning? For more behind the design of products (like finding out how a salad spinner works and why we designed our new prep peelers), check out the OXO Blog Behind the Scenes section.