For Prettier, Restaurant-Worthy Poached Eggs, Use a Colander

Poaching eggs can be tricky. It requires good timing and delicate hands. You have to get the egg whites and yolk to cook at the same time. 

But my biggest problem? The second I would place it in the hot water, the whites would go in every direction, producing a poached egg with ragged edges, not the plump, pretty ones you get when you go out for brunch.

Former Cook’s Illustrated test cook Andrew Janjigian set out to solve this problem. And he did with his Perfect Poached Eggs recipe. The key to achieving a restaurant-quality poached egg? A piece of kitchen equipment you already have: a colander.

It all starts with the freshness of your eggs. Raw egg whites can have both thick and thin consistencies. A fresher egg will have mostly thick egg white, but as the egg ages, the amount of thin whites increase.

That thin egg white is what floats off and causes all those loose white strands during cooking. But unless you’re on a farm, or taking multiple trips to the grocery store a week, you can’t have fresh eggs all the time. This is where the colander comes in.

By cracking your eggs into a colander, the thin whites are loose enough that they will drain through the holes. But the thick white, which clings nicely to the yolk, will stay put. Once you place the egg in your hot water, the white will cook neatly around the yolk, and will completely eliminate those frustrating loose tendrils, creating a beautiful, restaurant-worthy poached egg every time.

To learn more about the other ingenious tips Andrew came up with for poached eggs, check out the full recipe.