Poaching egg yolks

Faith

I've recently discovered eggs benedict. I've never gone for them before because of my hatred of egg whites, but I've recently been making it at home and just leaving the white to the side. Now I've decided to try poaching just the yolk and see how it goes. Google reckons less than 1 minute should produce a nice runny yolk. I'll try it over the next while myself, but I'm just curious if anyone here has tried it or could recommend a good approach?

kenco

Sorry Faith didnt read properly. Have never tried yolks only sorry (have unintentionily ended up with them!)

Depends a great deal on the heat of your poaching water in my view. I get it to below boiling (decent simmer) and wait until the eggs have floated to the service. I take them off the heat and leave for a min or so while I prep usually a bagel. They tend to be at this point a rich smooth yolk. Its taken a fair bit of time to get some level of consistency but its quite an individual taste thing

Moody_mona

There must be a fair amount of skill to handle these carefully is there?

Rew

Faith wrote: »

I've recently discovered eggs benedict. I've never gone for them before because of my hatred of egg whites, but I've recently been making it at home and just leaving the white to the side. Now I've decided to try poaching just the yolk and see how it goes. Google reckons less than 1 minute should produce a nice runny yolk. I'll try it over the next while myself, but I'm just curious if anyone here has tried it or could recommend a good approach?

Id imagine its easier then poaching and entire egg. Boil the water, stir it with a spoon, drop the yoke in the center of the swirl of water. I generally turn the heat down a bit this point to a simmer not a strong boil. Id imaging a minute or so is plenty.

Carawaystick

I suppose it depends on the temp of the egg and how much water is in the pot.
If the yolk is fridge cold it'll take longer
and if you've only a small amount of water in the pot, it'll cool an amount, compared to a large pot full.

Faith

Well, I tried it! We were having eggs Benedict so my fiancé did his eggs first as normal, then I dropped in the yolks to the same pot when his were done. I pulled them out after about 60 seconds and they were perfect. The only issue was the pure delicacy of them. Without the protective white, the yolk split on the slotted spoon so it was a bit manic getting them from water to plate without losing the lot.

I didn't take a picture because they were promptly covered with hollandaise sauce but it's a brilliant and quick way of cooking yolks alone and getting a runny but cooked result. And it meant I didn't jut have to feed the uneaten whites to the dog, I have the raw egg white in the fridge and I can use it for other things.

Dizzyblonde

That's great to know, Faith. I usually have leftover egg yolks when I make a pavlova and unless I'm baking something with them, I end up throwing them out.

Ann Landers

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

That's great to know, Faith. I usually have leftover egg yolks when I make a pavlova and unless I'm baking something with them, I end up throwing them out.

Can't they be frozen?

Ann Landers

Ann Landers wrote: »

Can't they be frozen?

Or thrown into a custard

Dizzyblonde

Ann Landers wrote: »

Can't they be frozen?

Yes, and sometimes I do freeze them. Then I forget about them and end up throwing them out anyway, when I eventually find them. I love the thought of poaching a couple of yolks for breakfast because I don't eat the white of a poached or fried egg. I try, but I don't like it much.

BaZmO*

Rew wrote: »

Id imagine its easier then poaching and entire egg. Boil the water, stir it with a spoon, drop the yoke in the center of the swirl of water. I generally turn the heat down a bit this point to a simmer not a strong boil. Id imaging a minute or so is plenty.

There'd be no need to swirl the water though. The only reason that you create a whirlpool when making poached eggs is to keep the eggwhite together in one piece.

pwurple

BaZmO* wrote: »

There'd be no need to swirl the water though. The only reason that you create a whirlpool when making poached eggs is to keep the eggwhite together in one piece.

Yup, and I find that swirl breaks up the egg as often as holds it together. No swirling at all is easier.

rubadub

You can get little floating silicone baskets for poaching eggs. I see them in € 2 shops or the likes of dealz.

this site has them, their prices actually include shipping
http://www.dx.com/p/silicone-egg-poach-pod-poacher-green-206908#.U2EsJvldVhE

Some use clingfilm in a similar way

separators too
http://www.dx.com/p/stylish-resin-egg-separator-white-147152#.U2Eso_ldVhE

If you lower & monitor the temperature it will be more forgiving, to get them exactly how you want. The yolks actually set at a lower temp than the whites, it is possible to "boil" an egg and have a hard yolk and runny white. Look up sous vide eggs to see what temps various chefs recommend, some "boil" for an hour or so.