Make ‘perfect’ poached eggs with just one ingredient – and no vinegar
Say goodbye to complicated poached eggs with this cooking hack.
Poached eggs are a delicious addition to any breakfast or brunch, but anyone who has tried to cook one knows how tricky they can be. Getting them to form the perfect shape when you drop them into water is notoriously difficult, and it seems like no one can really agree on how long to cook them for.
The most common method for poaching an egg involves adding white vinegar to your water and swirling the liquid around in the pan before dropping your egg into the middle of the whirlpool you’ve created. If that sounds complicated, that’s because it is.
But what if we told you that you don’t have to do any of that? You can actually achieve perfect poached eggs by doing absolutely nothing at all and using just one ingredient in your pan – water.
According to a TikTok video by Shalana Hegarty, making poached eggs doesn’t need to be a faff and can actually be done with nothing but boiling water and a little bit of patience.
In her video, Shalana said that “nothing pains” her more than hearing people say they can’t do “proper” poached eggs, so she decided to share her hack with the world.
She said: “I’m going to tell you how to do them. There is no vinegar, number one. Number two, there is no swirling it about like you’re in a f***ing mosh pit, okay?”
The most important part of Shalana’s hack is that your eggs should be at a fridge temperature before you add them to your pan of water. While the debate around where to store eggs has never really been settled, if you’re not someone who usually stores eggs in the fridge, stick a couple in the night before you want to make your poached eggs.
Warning: The below media contains explicit language throughout.
When your water is boiling, crack your eggs directly into the water. Shalana noted you don’t need to do this one egg at a time, you can crack all of your eggs into the same pan at once. And when that’s done, you just “do nothing”.
Shalana said: “You don’t touch them. You leave them to do their own thing. Obviously, you want to check them and make sure they’re alright, but they’ll do what needs to be done by themselves.”
She reiterated that the most important thing is that your eggs are fresh and cold, as this helps them keep their shape when they enter the water. Once they’re cooked to your liking, you can take them out of the water and place them on a plate to rest for a moment “like a steak”.
At the end of her video, Shalana showed off her perfectly cooked eggs with a delicious runny yolk inside.
