Poached eggs are a weekend staple, whether you’re whipping up breakfast for the whole family or preparing a healthy brunch. However, there is one cooking method many people utilise when cooking poached eggs which a breakfast chef says there is “no need” to do.
Chef Moyo is a breakfast chef who is part of the Herd Chefs family and cooks more than 600 poached eggs every week. In a video shared to the @herd.chefs TikTok and Instagram pages, the chef explained how he cooks the “perfect poached egg”.
According to Chef Moyo, there is “no need” to create “a vortex” while cooking your egg. Many people recommend creating a whirlpool with the water to help the egg bind together and create its shape.
Instead, Chef Moyo advises that his two main tips are to use white wine vinegar and fresh eggs. This, he says, can “make all the difference”.
“So, we bring the water to a boil and turn it down,” he explained.
“Add 10 percent of the volume of the water as the white wine vinegar. This will bring the water down to an ideal temperature of 75C.
“Fresh eggs make a huge difference so crack one into a small bowl and lower into the water. No need for a vortex. After two minutes of poaching they will start floating to the top. That is a sign they are ready.”
For his breakfast service, the chef stores his eggs in a bain-marie, however, this will not be necessary for home cooks.
He continued: “If you’re serving them straight away you poach up to three to four minutes and then you have a perfect poached egg.”
How to poach an egg like Chef Moyo
The chefs from @herd.chefs shared a step-by-step to the perfect eggs on Instagram:
Step one: Bring your pot of water to a boil and turn it down.
Step two: Add around 10 percent of the water volume in white wine vinegar. If you’re at home you can do less. The closer you get to 10 percent the higher success rate you’ll have.
Step three: When you add the vinegar you’ll find it takes the water temperature to around 75C. That’s where you want to keep it simmering.
Step four: Using fresh eggs makes a real difference. Crack one into a bowl and lower it into the water.
Step five: “We poach for two minutes so we can hold in a bain-marie for up to four hours at 60C to 70C,” explained the chefs. “So when prepping we transfer them to ice water to stop them cooking. You can also do this if you want to get a lot of eggs ready for a brunch with multiple people, where you need a large number of eggs up to heat at the same time.”
If you’re serving them straight away you can poach for three to four minutes.
