Perfect Poached Eggs

I’m a huge fan of eggs; you know this. To me, a perfectly fried egg on sourdough toast is the epitome of deliciousness. The crispy caramelized white shatters like glass and the thickened, but runny, yolk soaks into the bread like gravy. But my once and only true love has recently been usurped by one better: poached eggs on toast.

Where a fried egg has crispy whites, which add texture but are somewhat boring, the poached egg has a luxuriously silky white that is almost like custard. And where the perfect fried yolk is difficult to obtain, always either too runny or too cooked, the perfect poached yolk is a mere matter of timing. Once you find that sweet spot your yolks are perfect forever.

The Perfect Fried Egg

I love eggs, and I eat more than any man should. In fact, the principal reason I wanted to keep chickens was to have a ready supply of good, fresh eggs. Eggs are one of the most versatile foods: high in protein they provide structure to baked goods, high in fat they provide richness to sauces and cremes. They can hold a whip for a meringue and they can be hard boiled and shoved (gently) in a pocket for later consumption. Eggs can be eaten in just about any course of any meal. Fresh eggs are especially good poached or in frittatas. But for the connoisseur, there is no substitute for a simple, perfect, fried egg.

A Dozen Fresh Eggs: Frittata!

We have 5 chickens.  Chickens lay an egg approximately every 26 hours.  That means each chicken lays an egg almost every day.  That means we get 4-5 eggs every day. That’s a lot of eggs.  We manage to recover some of our feed costs by selling eggs to our coworkers, but sometimes things work out where we have 2-3 dozen eggs in the fridge.  What then do you do with with a dozen fresh eggs?  Frittata.