How do you poach chicken?

Question

How do you poach chicken?

Asked by javelinBCD

Answer

By hunting chicken in a game preserve? ;-)

http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--324/poaching-chicken.asp

The essence of poaching chicken is a gentle boil in water, stock or other flavorful liquid. I really like poaching chunks of chicken in a thin sweet-and-sour sauce, then thickening the sauce, adding pineapple chunks, and serving over rice.

Answered by Tim Gilbert

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How should I poach an egg?

Question

What's the best method to poach an egg without it turning into an eggy soupy mess?

Asked by MJeffryes

Answer

1. I fill a tall frying pan (or pot) with water.
2. Add some white vinegar.
3. Let it come to a boil
4. Add the eggs. Don't make it too overcrowded
5. Take it out with a flipper or a spoon with holes when they look done.

Answered by Kyra

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The best way to poach an egg without vinegar

Question

What is the best way to poach an egg without vinegar? Is there a quick and easy alternative?

Thanks in advance.

Asked by Jeb

Answer

Heston Blumenthal has brought his unique scientific approach to bear on this recently. The main pointers for a perfect poached egg are as follows:

• The egg must be fresh. A fresh egg has a thicker, more gel-like albumen. As it gets older, this becomes watery, and so just disperses throughout the water when you add it. To test if your egg is fresh, place it in a jug of cold water. If it floats, it's not fresh - the egg has had time to absorb air through its shell. A fresh egg sinks and stays sunk.

• The water temperature should be 80ºC/176ºF exactly. You can measure this with a sugar or probe thermometer. The egg should be at room temperature.

• The egg should not come into contact with direct heat, so put a plate or small bowl on the bottom of the pan, bottom up.

Once the water is up to temperature, carefully add the fresh egg to the water (I break it into a ramekin first) and cook for 4 minutes exactly. Drain and serve - the white should be set but not rubbery (a drawback of using vinegar) and the yolk should be creamy and rich.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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How does a splash of vinegar help when poaching eggs?

Question

What does splashing in a shot of white vinegar to the simmering water do when poaching an egg?

Is it for taste or is it supposed to react in some way with the albumen?

Answer

Egg whites need to be heated up to a certain temperature in order to coagulate ("set").

Lowering the pH (increasing the acidity) of the cooking liquid is one way to lower the temperature required for coagulation of the egg whites. So, in a way, this does prevent "feathering" of the eggs, but not because of any direct reaction; rather, the reason the eggs feather less is because they have less time to feather, because they don't need to get as hot.

Any acidic liquid will have a similar effect. White vinegar is probably the most effective, but you could also add lemon juice or wine to the poaching liquid. In fact, eggs poached in red wine sauce ("Oeufs en Meurette") is quite a popular preparation method.

For reference, the coagulation temperature is also proportional to the salinity (add salt to lower the coagulation temperature, add sugar to raise it), and inversely proportional to the number of eggs used (more eggs = lower coagulation temperature).

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