Poached eggs are a favourite that can be done for breakfast, brunch, lunch and maybe even dinner, but so often people struggle to get them restaurant-perfect. However, chef and TikTok creator Dzung Lewis, who shares recipes under the moniker HoneySuckle, shared her easy method to make a poached egg. It’s so simple that she claims it is “the easiest way” and won’t require any “crazy” techniques – not even the whirlpool method.
Dzung shared her trick with TikTok in a video, where she displayed exactly how to make the poached egg, complete with runny yolk, from beginning to end.
She said: “I’ve discovered the easiest way that you can get a poached egg without straining the egg whites or even creating that crazy whirlpool.”
Instead of labouring over special techniques, Dzung says all you need is a simple pan of boiling water and a cup of distilled white vinegar.
She explained: “We will start by boiling our water and I add a splash of vinegar, I let it come to a boil.”
Vinegar, and white vinegar, in particular, is often recommended for making poached eggs. This is because the acidity in the vinegar increases the rate of denaturing, or to put it basically, the breaking up of the protein. In turn, this means your egg is more likely to hold its shape better.
Other vinegars do work similarly, but white vinegar is recommended because of its light colour meaning you do not risk your egg going a strange colour.
“You want it to be a semi-rolling boil because once you add the egg it will die down a bit,” continued Dzung in her video. “Crack your egg on a flat surface and at the same level as the pot drop it in.”
A rolling boil is a vigorous, bubbling boil with a sort of churning, active motion that comes from using high heat.
A semi-rolling boil is something slightly less aggressive than this. According to the chef, this will help the egg white to bind.
“The rolling boil kind of helped the egg whites wrap around the yolk and if you don’t see it doing that a good old spatula to help it along will be just fine,” she said. If you want to give your egg a helping hand, you can use the spatula to gently guide it into place.
Then, go back to a lesser boil for about two and a half minutes. The chef says this will result in “a perfectly runny poached egg.
“Once it’s ready, I’ll just scoop the egg out with a slotted spoon and let it air dry.”
Dzung proves just how well her method works in the video when she cuts the egg in half and a golden yolk oozes out onto her slice of toast.
