The Poached Egg

I love poached eggs, but have a difficult time poaching them properly (on the stove in a pot of simmering water). I’ve gotten the technique down pretty well, but it’s awfully fussy, a bit time-consuming, I have to do one egg at a time, and I always lose a lot of the egg white.

I do have an electric egg cooker that makes perfect hard- or soft-boiled eggs, but it isn’t the kind that has cups for “poached” (actually steamed) eggs. But usually when I want a poached-type egg, I make a soft-boiled egg and then peel it. Sometimes that’s easier said than done.

While visiting my sister in Massachusetts last week, she was attempting to poach an egg in a bowl of water in the microwave oven. She used to have a microwave egg poacher, but couldn’t find it. I was a bit surprised, since I’d never thought of trying that. She didn’t really know how long to cook it, though. I Googled it, of course, and found this article.

Couldn’t be easier – put 1/2 cup water in a 1-cup bowl, plop in the egg, cover it with a plate, and cook for about 1 minute. Then remove the egg with a slotted spoon.

I tried it, and it came out pretty well, though it ended up being slightly overcooked since I left it in the hot water while I made toast. We experimented some more over the next few days, and found that for her microwave oven (which is an older model), 65 seconds was just right, as long as I took the egg out right away with a slotted spoon (I let it dry a few seconds on a paper towel).

Of course, I was excited to try it at home. I have a new microwave oven, and a minute was just a little too long – the yolk was partly hard-cooked. Then I tried it again using a 2-cup bowl with 1 cup of water and 2 eggs. With the power set to 80%, 2 1/2 minutes was just perfect. Tomorrow I’ll try again with a single egg, at 80% power instead of full. It may take a bit of experimenting to get it exactly the way I want it, but then I’ll be in poached egg heaven.

Egg ready to be poached. 7-oz ramekin with half a cup of water and 1 egg. Cover it with a plate (which you can then use for serving), and cook for about a minute.

Egg after poaching. It’s hard to see the white egg in the white bowl. This one was just a little overdone. I’ll either cut down the time by 5 seconds next time, or try 80% power.

The same method, but putting 2 eggs in a 2-cup bowl with 1 cup water. Cooked for 2 1/2 minutes at 80% power. Perfect!

Some of the other sites suggested pricking the yoke with a toothpick to keep it from exploding. I didn’t do that, but maybe I’ll try it next time.