Please give foolproof advice on how to cook a soft poached egg.
Anne Marie, County Donegal
I’m here for you, Anne Marie, so let’s do this thing!
Step 1 Don’t be afraid. Remember: it’s just an egg cooked in water.
Step 2 Use fresh eggs. The older the egg, the looser its white will be and the scrawnier it will be when cooked. If your egg is a little old, add a drop of vinegar to the water before dropping in the egg (older eggs are more alkaline, and the acid offsets this and keeps things in line). Fresh eggs don’t need any vinegar, and no egg needs a great big slosh of the stuff (unless you like the taste of vinegary poached eggs).
Step 3 Bring a pan of water to a simmer, crack in the egg and leave to cook for three or four minutes, depending on how soft you want it. Crack it straight into the water, or crack it into a cup or ramekin first and slip it in: there’s no downside to the latter, which also eliminates all risk of some shell becoming part of the equation.
The simmering water can be left as it is, or it can be whisked to create a vortex before slipping in the egg. Fans of the spin say this helps keep the egg a neat oval shape. Fans of unwhisked water, meanwhile, don’t mind the more freestyle-looking end result. Others still favour bringing the water to a boil, then turning off the heat before dropping in the egg, which stays neat with no straggly white tails. All three approaches work (and however much everyone defends their own method), so the choice is yours.
Step 4 Use a slotted spoon to lift the egg out of the water and on to a cloth to absorb any excess water, and from there to your (perfectly timed and well-buttered) muffin or toast. (Incidentally, my colleague Tara Wigley has a fun rhyme about how to poach an egg in her book How to Butter Toast: Rhymes in a Book that Help You to Cook, which also provides clarity on fried eggs and scrambled eggs, among many other things.)