Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I don't understand the difficulty either. I make them in a frying pan with boiling water and a bit of vinegar, and they always come out in one piece with no 'tails' and what not. Perfect every time.

Although as someone else said, I prefer over easy. They just taste better.

Is an egg cooked in plastic really poached? Wouldn't that be more like sous vide?

Poach: to cook (eggs, fish, fruits, etc.) in a hot liquid that is kept just below the boiling point.

Sous Vide: the technique of cooking ingredients in a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch, usually for a long time at a low temperature.

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!