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I agree with all who've suggested that the plastic bag and poaching pans methods do not produce genuine poached eggs. Eggs cooked directly in water is the only way I'll consider it poached. ...and they look so much more appetizing that way too! Poaching pans make the egg look far too "perfect" (in a bad way), like an Egg McMuffin. The plastic bag makes that same, too rubbery, smooth texture. Ick.

An egg white coagulates 140F and the yolks at 149F. This is a safe temperature for almost all plastic wrap. Saran Wrap and Stretch Tight brand are safe up to near boiling temperatures (I'm not sure about other brands). If you are really scared about it, don't eat in restaurants because they use methods like that all the time.

The vortex method has always worked fine for me, but the best way to prevent straggly, runny whites is to use FRESH eggs. The older an egg gets, the runnier the white, so look for the freshest eggs you can find. Not so easy in the supermarket, but if you have access to a farmers market and can find fresh, pasture-raised eggs, not only will they taste better but they will be much easier to poach. Looking at the photos on this post, it looks like those eggs are many weeks old!

Hey Robb, Do you use 100% milk or do you dilute it in water at all? That sounds like a nifty method.

Always liked my own crazy technique, but I'm with Adam---going to try Robb's poaching in milk!

I'm going to try poaching in milk. Thanks, Robb!

Add a few drops to a tablespoon of water to a bowl, crack egg in, microwave 20 - 45 seconds (depends on microwave)...

we used to serve a 'cold' breakfast at a charitable organization I volunteer at and we offered a raw egg choice on these days just for this application.

Worked thousands of times over, perfect almost every time.

(water also helps prevent the egg from doing that 'blowing up' thing that most people have a problem with in a microwave)

...cook, chef, culinary sponge, traveler, volunteer, missionary.
tyronebcookin

I agree that cooking the egg in plastic is not technically a poached egg. You might just as well make a soft-cooked egg (in its shell), as I suspect the result is virtually identical other than having changed its shape and eliminated the need to remove it from the shell after cooking.

The same for cooking in those "poachers" that use little cups suspended above the water. I'd say these are a form of coddled or steamed eggs.

To my mind, for a thing to be poached, the edible portion must be in contact with the cooking liquid. But I'm no trained chef, so I could be wrong.

I always add about a tablespoon of white vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the cooking liquid. It keeps the vast majority of the egg held together without affecting the flavor. In my experience, scraggly fragments from the runniest part of the whites are inevitable, but how much seems to depend on the freshness of the eggs.

I used to use the vortex method, but didn't find it really improved the results. Now I just slide them into a large non-stick skillet full of simmering water for 3-5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon, blot and serve.

This just makes me shudder at what you're off-gassing into the eggs. I do poach eggs - vortex method - but I can't really be all superior about it because I separate out the yolks and only poach them (egg whites disagree with me) so I wouldn't have a problem with tendrils anyway.

And we have a winner!

Beccat, come on down!

Someone from Serious Eats will be contacting you shortly to get shipping info. Congrats!

Have always preferred white, but sometimes I'll chop up the dark meat for a thick gravy.. Not a big fan of using the innards for gravy..

dark meat

Dark--the meat, err, is sweeter closer to the bone.