What makes a perfect poached egg?

The perfect poached egg is a matter of taste - some of you will like ever so slighty runny poached eggs for dunking butter-soaked toast into, whilst others prefer a firmer, meatier variety of poached egg.

The ‘perfect’ poached egg method on this site is the former; an egg poached just to the point where the white is no longer runny and the yolk is beginning to harden around the edges, encasing the lush, runny, flowing yolk ready for dipping the aforementioned toast. Don't take my word for it, here's a picture.

The dressing up of your perfect poached egg is again up to you - plain old runny poached egg on toast with a healthy sprinkling of coarse black pepper and sea salt is perfect for some, whilst others prefer the buttery sensation of eggs benedict. Serve your poached egg with crispy smoked bacon, a doorstep of country grain bread spread generously with butter, all on a bed of rocket... mm, let’s stop there before I have to go and eat one!

The reason we consider our poached egg method to be perfect is for three very simple reasons: it’s easy, it can be tailored to your exact preference and there’s no faffing!

This method assumes you are cooking poached egg on toast and uses the toaster as an egg timer. I realise that you may be cooking eggs benedict or some other recipe so I will provide timings soon (check out what's coming soon). However, if it is poached egg on toast you are cooking then look no further. My method is efficiency at it's best!

Interested? Here’s how you do it