When it comes to poached eggs, there's lots of tips and tricks you can use to perfect the tricky dish. Some people swear by adding a dash of vinegar, whereas for others it is all about creating a vortex. But it turns out you don't always need to swirl the water before adding in your egg, to shape it beautifully.
Instead, you can count on a trusty strainer to do all the work for you. As one amazed foodie discovered, there's an easy way to poach your eggs, and once you've seen the results you'll understand why the chef-approved hack is taking the internet by storm.
As @thecoreyb demonstrates in a viral TikTok, you can simply crack your egg into a strainer then add it straight to your pan. "Apparently this is the easiest way to poach your egg, and all you need is a strainer," he narrates, as a fellow TikTok user tests the trick onscreen.
"Look, she pours the eggs into the strainer, then she pours them in the water and doesn't touch them. She doesn't even do a spinny thing," he adds in disbelief. But he need not have feared, as the tip worked a charm when he went on to try it with a fellow foodie.
The pair recorded themselves putting their discovery to good use - and they were astonished by the results after using a strainer. "What? Are you absolutely kidding me?" shouts the excited narrator, before tucking into the 'juiciest' egg. Equally impressed were the thousands of viewers who liked the video and those who commented their surprise.
"Thank you for helping me perfectly poach an egg for the very first time in my life!," read one reply. A second said: "That looks so good." And another added: "I just tried it!!!!!! what the heck! How did that worked!!!! amazing & good!"
The results might not come as a shock when you learn the tip has the backing of professional chefs, though. According to @eatlikeanadult, even Michelin Star chefs agree it's worth having a strainer to hand. However, this foodie explained it is still worth swirling the water.
In a video that has been viewed over one millions times, he explained: "When I was taught to make poached eggs in professional kitchens, I was told to add vinegar to the water and create a vigorous swirl but I recently saw a Michelin Star chef do it and I immediately adopted this new way because it's better in my opinion and I'm also not a Michelin Star chef, so there's that."
He added: "Get your water to a rolling simmer and then crack your egg into a sieve to it strains off those watery parts of the egg white for about a minute or so.
"Add a little bit of salt [to the water] and then the critical part is that you stir your water and you wait until it's the gentlest of swirls, so when it goes in, you've got the gentlest of movements so it doesn't stick." It is also recommended to select the freshest eggs possible before you go on to strain and swirl them.
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