Julia Child was a legend and I can only appreciate her content from what I watch online. I have to admit it, I even loved that movie Julia & Julia. Having only learned how to cook from teaching myself, I am always on the lookout for new ways to get better. That is how I learned how to make these perfect poached eggs.
Julia’s tip is quite simple, yet the payoff is huge. All it takes is three easy resources to make it happen — a pin, a timer, and 10 seconds.
Perfect Poached Egg every time
This tip for perfect poached eggs for your high calorie breakfast from Julia Child will completely change your breakfast for the rest of your life. I have always loved poached eggs but only ordered them at restaurants because I didn’t think I could make them. With this recipe, you will be making flawless poached eggs forever. You can even start impressing your family and friends.
All you will need to make perfect poached eggs is:
- A Pin
- A timer
- 10 seconds
You’ll need eggs, a pot of water, and a slotted spoon of course, but it’s the pin, timer, and extra few seconds that really make the magic happen.
Why Julia Childs Tip Works
The real key to this recipe is the 10 second boil. That boil produces perfectly poached eggs every time. The reason I have never made poached eggs at home was because every attempt ended with a pan full of egg whites and no poached egg at the end.
The egg whites were always wispy and would pull away from the egg when I added it to the water.
Using this recipe for a perfect poached egg, you can say goodbye to those wispy egg whites. After poking the hole in the egg and boiling for 10 seconds, the egg holds its shape.
Now it’s your turn. Leave me a comment after you make this letting me know what you thought!
How to Cook a Perfect Poached Egg in 4 minutes and 10 seconds
Ingredients
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Use a pin to make a small hole in the eggshell. This will release any air that's in the egg, which could otherwise cause it to crack. (the hole is small, nothing will leak)
- Place the whole egg (still in the shell) in the boiling water for exactly 10 seconds.
- Remove the egg from the water, and lower the heat to bring the water to a simmer (Boiling the egg helps it to retain its shape once it's cracked and poured into simmering water later.)
- Once the egg is cool enough to handle (5 seconds), poach the egg as you normally would, by cracking the egg into gently simmering water.
- Poach the egg for 3:30 to 4 minutes depending on how you like your egg. We cook ours to 3 minutes and 30 seconds for runny yolks
- Remove your egg from the water with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel
- Serve on gluten free toast, salad or just eat it as is
Orange Creamsicle Smoothie
I make poached eggs several times a week and always marvel how many good restaurants make them so perfectly. Mine always have lots of white swirls, timed for 3 minutes, and taste good – but they don’t ever look perfect. So – I tried this method – unsalted & no vinegar, I poked a whole in the small end, dipped the egg in boiling water for 10 seconds, cracked it open in a bowl and poured it in the pan. Totally beautiful and actually tastier poached egg! You could actually prep several eggs this way, then poach them. Fabulous!
I was on a cruise ship last month and they had pre poached in the shell in a very large bowl.
Can you store them for 24 hrs or do you have to poach them at once?
I have chickens and eat eggs every day and every way BUT poached, cause I could never get it right. I’m DEF going to try this one. Great tip!
Awesome! Let us know how it goes!
Non
Team Caveman
Hi George,
I absolutely love poached eggs and have always had the same issues as you. But I will now give this recipe a try and see what happens.
Loving your site. Am always looking for new recipes to try out.
Tried it several times after seeing it elsewhere on the internet. It just plain doesn’t work / doesn’t make any difference from doing it without the 10 second pre-cook. If you pre-cook too long you get egg cooked and stuck on the inside of the shell when you crack it losing a bunch of egg, if you pre-cook any shorter than that you get the same poached egg mess as always.
Even in your video you can see it’s just an ordinary poached egg, you’d get the same result without the pre-cooking.
Julia Child was amazing but this doesn’t seem like something she would do.
you have to be doing something wrong JohnC or maybe your eggs are not fresh enough. This method is foolproof if you follow the directions properly and do not use cheap old eggs.
I am had the same problem but also I think I have troubled shot it down. For me, the whole was too big(leaked out) and not a strong enough boil you need a full rolling boiling that doesn’t slow when you stir. also, I am going to try having a boiling pot of water and simmering pot.
I agree with you John C. If the directions don’t give you the results you want then maybe those directions aren’t meant for people like the average John or Mary. I buy my eggs at the supermarket, not the chicken lady down the street. I’ve tried many recipes and suggestions and the best method I found is posted by Lisa Bryan, July 1, 2018. I didn’t follow her directions exactly the first few times, but when I did I got great looking eggs with very few wisps.
I use a regular size safety pin, poke a tiny hole in the small end of the egg. When you dip the egg in the simmering water (on a slotted spoon), you can see tiny bubbles come out of the hole. After about 10 seconds, I remove the egg and set it aside for a few seconds (or more if doing another egg or two). Then I crack the egg into a small bowl and drop it into the simmering water for 3 minutes. Totally perfect every time.
As a big fan of poached eggs I’ve yet to find a consistent way to make them perfect every time. This is it! I’ve made at least a dozen eggs (separately) using this method and each one has been flawless. Thank you!
Wow Dana that is amazing, I am so glad it worked for you.
This is super amazing, definitely trying it this weekend!
Ere please do and let us know
I am going to try this!!
You should, it’s so easy