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Poached Eggs (For best results eggs should)
For best results, eggs should be fresh and cold. Pour a quart of water, 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon vinegar in a shallow frying pan, and arrange in it as many muffin rings as eggs to be cooked. Set the pan where water will bubble at one side of pan only. Break eggs one at a time into a saucer and slide them into the rings. Be sure the water is boiling and covers the eggs. Cook with cover on pan until the white is set over the yolks, then pour off most of the water. Lift the eggs one at a time with a pancake turner, and slide them into the bread baskets. Eggs may also be poached in milk, in meat stock, and in gravy, any of which may be poured over the eggs and served with them.
A conventional poach done in rings, from an era when a neat cylindrical egg was the mark of a careful cook. Most of the method holds up; a few of the instructions work against each other.
- Boiling versus barely tremblingThe text says to keep the water boiling, but a rolling boil tears the white and toughens it. Bring the water to a boil, then drop the heat until the surface only shivers, around 180-190F. The instruction to set the pan so it bubbles on one side may have served the same end, keeping the eggs themselves in calmer water.
- Muffin ringsThese are plain metal bands, about 3 inches across and an inch deep, once sold by the dozen for English muffins. Egg rings, crumpet rings, or the ring cut from a tuna can with both ends removed all do the job. Grease them lightly or the white will weld to the metal.
- Vinegar and saltA teaspoon of vinegar in a quart is a light hand and will not flavour the egg; it helps the white coagulate before it disperses. What salt does to the white is disputed, and at this quantity the effect is slight either way, so treat it as seasoning rather than structure. With rings holding the shape, both are optional.
- Fresh and coldThis is the hinge. A fresh egg has a thick, ropy white that holds around the yolk; an older egg spreads into threads no ring can save. Cold eggs from the refrigerator hold together better on entry into the water.
- TimingNo time is given. Three minutes gives a set white and a fully liquid yolk, four a jammy one, five firm through. Judge by the white clouding over the yolk, as the recipe says, rather than the clock.
- Bread basketsThese are cases cut from a thick slice of bread, hollowed and toasted or fried, a standard breakfast garnish of the period. Thick buttered toast, an English muffin half, or a split biscuit serves the same purpose of soaking up the yolk.
- Poaching in milk or stockMilk scorches easily and should be held well below a simmer; watch the bottom of the pan. Stock and gravy poach well and the liquid picks up enough egg protein to cloud slightly, which is harmless.
- YieldWork in batches rather than crowding; how many rings a shallow pan will hold depends on its size. Finished eggs can be kept in a bowl of warm water for a few minutes if serving all at once.