Text 19648, 115 rader
Skriven 2012-01-07 20:21:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av NANCY BACKUS
Ärende: fresh eggs 1
====================
-=> Quoting Nancy Backus to Michael Loo <=-

 ML> Fresh egg flavor shines out in simple dishes

 NB> What about hard-boiled eggs

VERY hard to peel. Use old ones for that and keep the fresh ones for
soft boiled eggs spooned out of the shell.

MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: Cracking The Poached Egg Code Pt 1
Categories: Eggs, Info
  Servings: 2

  1 1/2 ts white vinegar
      1 TB table salt
      2    fresh raw eggs

Recipes, books and blog posts on poaching are all over the map. When
it comes to poached eggs, there seemed to be but a single constant:
Everyone has a "secret." Authors call for deep narrow pots or wide
shallow pans; two cups or two quarts of water; adding vinegar, salt
or neither to the poaching water; cooking temperatures from 180
degrees to just under the boil, and cooking times from two to five
minutes. There are poachers who swirl and poachers who don't. I
bought a couple dozen eggs, read through all the secrets and started
to practice. I discovered a few truths, but many more myths, about
the poached egg.

Truth: For poaching, the fresher the egg, the better. First, as the
egg ages, water from the white migrates into the yolk, weakening the
yolk membrane and increasing the likelihood that the yolk will
break. At the same time, the flexible "chain"  called the chalazae
that holds the yolk in suspension weakens. Second, if you crack
open an egg and look at the white part (the albumin), you'll see
that there are actually two types: thick albumen surrounding the
yolk, and thinner, more watery albumen that spreads out quickly.
It's this thin white that dances its tarantella in the poaching
liquid and makes your poached egg splay like the wild hair of a
crazy scientist. As the egg ages, the proportion of thick to thin
albumen decreases and you risk losing more of the white. Conclusion:
Start with fresh eggs.

You'll still have some thin albumen, though, and there are all kinds
of tricks advanced for dealing with it. Poachers who espouse the
"vortex" method of poaching, in which you swirl the water and drop
the egg in the middle, claim that the current causes the whites to
wrap around the yolk, resulting in a tidy package. Although some
very respectable cooks and well-known chefs swear by this method,
it's fussy and requires a deep pot with lots of water. Also, I
didn't find it made a bit of difference.

Vinegar is another trick mentioned for corralling stray whites. Acid
in the water is supposed to cause them to set faster. Although there
is a reason to add some vinegar to egg poaching water (which I'll
get to presently), firming the whites is not it.

The one "secret" that does result in compact, nice-looking poached
eggs comes from food scientist Harold McGee (in his book On Food and
Cooking), who suggests draining the thin white before you poach your
eggs. I use a small coarse-mesh strainer for this. Some people
recommend a perforated spoon, but it has to be a big one to hold the
entire egg, bigger than any I've got in my kitchen.

The second secret also comes from McGee, who explains the restaurant
trick of adding vinegar and salt to the poaching water. Since the
egg white is alkaline, the vinegar reacts with the white to form
tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide at the surface of the egg. If the
water is hot enough (near boiling), salt increases the density of
the cooking liquid just enough to make the egg bob to the surface
when it's about perfectly done. While you can certainly poach eggs
without the salt and vinegar, they'll want to sit on the bottom of
the pan and thus cook unevenly. Besides, it's really cool to watch
an egg expel a jet of tiny gas bubbles and break the water's surface
like a miniature submarine.

And that's the main thing I've found about poached eggs: When you
get over the fear and trepidation, they're fun. Learning to poach an
egg is empowering. Inspiring, even. Not only can you make plain
poached eggs (the perfect breakfast with buttered toast), but you
open up a whole world of dishes in which poached eggs play a role:
luscious eggs Benedict and all its cousins, hash and eggs, and
salade Lyonnaise, the amazing French bistro salad. The first time
you take a perfect white oval out of your saucepan, you'll feel
invincible. If you can poach an egg, you can do anything.

You can poach eggs in different-size pans and at different
temperatures, but I've found the following method to be the most
reliable. For two eggs, use a saucepan that holds about 1.5 quarts.
You want about 3 inches of water, so whatever pan you choose should
hold that much with some headroom to spare. (Don't listen to those
people who tell you to poach eggs in a skillet; it won't hold enough
water.) Whichever pan you use, measure the water and use 1.5
teaspoons vinegar and 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water. A
thermometer is very handy but not absolutely necessary.

Article by: Janet A. Zimmerman

  From: Www.Npr.Org

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Cheers

YK Jim


... Eggos taste like their color: they taste 'yellow.'

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