Eggs, Poached
INGREDIENTS. - Eggs, water. To every pint of water allow 1 tablespoonful of vinegar. AVERAGE COST, 1d. to 2d. each.
Eggs for poaching should be perfectly fresh, but not quite new-laid; those that are about 36 hours old are the best for the purpose. If quite new-laid, the white is so milky it is almost impossible to set it; and on the other hand, if the egg be at all stale, it is equally difficult to poach it nicely. Strain some boiling water into a deep clean frying-pan, break the egg into a cup without damaging the yolk, and, when the water boils, remove the pan to the side of the fire, and gently slip the egg into it. Place the pan over a gentle fire, and keep the water simmering until the white looks nicely set, when the egg is ready. Take it up gently with a slice, TIN EGG-POACHER. cut away the ragged edges of the white, and serve either on toasted bread or on slices of ham or bacon, or on spinach, &c.
A poached egg should not be overdone, as its appearance and taste will be quite spoiled if the yolk be allowed to harden.
When the egg is slipped into the water, the white should be gathered together, to keep it a little in form, or the cup should be turned over it for 1/2 minute. To poach an egg to perfection is rather a difficult operation; so, for inexperienced cooks, a tin egg-poacher may be purchased, which greatly facilitates this manner of dressing eggs. Our illustration clearly shows what it is it consists of a tin plate with a handle, with a space for three perforated cups. An egg should be broken into each cup, and the machine then placed in a stewpan of boiling water, which has EGGS, POACHED. been previously strained. When the whites of the eggs appear set, they are done, and should then be carefully slipped on to the toast or spinach, or with whatever they are served. In poaching eggs in a fryingpan, never do more than four at a time; and, when a little vinegar is liked mixed with the water in which the eggs are done, use the above proportion.
TIME.-2 to 3 minutes, according to the size of the eggs.
SEASONABLE at any time, but less plentiful in winter. Eggs, Poached, with Cream. -INGREDIENTS for dish for 2 or 3 persons. -1 pint of water, 1 teaspoonful of salt, 4 teaspoonfuls of vinegar, 4 fresh eggs, 1/27 gill of cream, salt, pepper, 1 oz. of butter.
AVERAGE COST, 10d.
Put the water, vinegar and salt into a frying-pan, and break each egg into a separate cup; bring the water, &c., to boil, and slip the eggs gently into it without breaking the yolks. Simmer them from 3 to 4 minutes, but not longer, and with a slice lift them out on to a hot dish, and trim the edges. Empty the pan of its contents, put in the cream, add a seasoning to taste of pepper and salt, bring the whole to the boiling-point; then add the butter, broken into small pieces; toss the pan round and round till the butter is melted, pour it over the eggs, and serve.
To insure re the eggs not being spoiled whilst the cream, &c., is preparing, it is a good plan to warm the cream with the butter, &c., before the eggs are poached, so that it may be poured over them immediately after they are dished.
TIME.-3 to 4 minutes to poach the eggs, 5 minutes to warm the cream.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Two recipes: plain poached eggs, and poached eggs finished with a cream and butter sauce. The method is sound and needs little translation, but a few Victorian assumptions are worth spelling out.
- The hinge: water that never boilsBeeton takes the pan off the direct heat before the egg goes in and keeps it only simmering. Rolling water shreds the white; hold the water at about 180-190F, with a few lazy bubbles rising, and the white sets in a single mass.
- "Remove the pan to the side of the fire"On a range this meant sliding the pan off the hot plate to a cooler part. On a gas or induction hob, bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat right down and let it settle for half a minute before slipping the egg in.
- The vinegar ratioOne tablespoon per pint (a UK pint, 20 fl oz) is a light hand and will not flavour the egg. The second recipe uses four teaspoonfuls to a pint, which is stronger and will faintly season the white. Acid helps the albumen coagulate; salt is less reliable, and is often said to encourage the white to spread.
- "1/27 gill" is a misprintThe original almost certainly reads half a gill of cream, which is 2 1/2 fl oz, or about 1/3 cup. Use double or heavy cream; single cream may split when brought to boiling point.
- Egg ageThe 36-hour rule holds in substance. Supermarket eggs are usually a week or more old, which is fine, but the white thins with age and spreads more. Straining an older egg briefly in a slotted spoon to shed the loose outer white gives a tidier result than trimming afterwards.
- A deep frying-panBeeton means a wide, straight-sided pan, not a shallow skillet. Two to three inches of water gives the egg room to set before it touches the base; a sauté pan or a wide saucepan does the job.
- The tin egg-poacherThe cups here are perforated, so the poaching water reaches the egg directly. Solid-cupped poachers set over water steam the egg rather than poach it, which is a different texture entirely.
- Timing and donenessTwo to three minutes for a large egg gives a set white and liquid yolk; the four minutes given in the cream version will start to firm the yolk. Beeton's warning stands - a hardened yolk in a poached egg is a fault.
- YieldThe cream version serves two or three as a light dish. Warming the cream and butter first, as the note suggests, is genuinely worth doing: the eggs go cold in the time it takes to reduce a sauce.
- Soft yolksA poached egg is not brought to a pasteurising temperature. For very young children, pregnant women, the elderly or anyone immunocompromised, use eggs from a scheme such as British Lion or pasteurised in shell.
Poached eggs were breakfast and invalid food in equal measure in the Victorian household, valued because they used no fat and needed no frying. The name comes from the French pocher, to pocket, describing the way the white forms a pouch around the yolk rather than any connection with poaching game. The illustrated tin egg-poacher belongs to an age of mass-produced pressed-tin kitchen gadgets, and the book was revised long after Isabella Beeton's death in 1865, with posthumous editions known to have added material. The advice on egg age is a reminder that most households bought from a poulterer or kept hens, and could actually know how old an egg was - a piece of information no modern shopper has, beyond a best-before date.