How to stop egg white foaming in water

[BenBennetts]

Hi, I'm new to this forum so apologies if the answer to this question has been aired before.

I cook poached eggs in a normal egg poacher, the utensil that has four pots suspended in a metal plate and placed over boiling water in a pan below. Sometimes, some of the albumen (egg white) escapes from the egg, trickles through the venting holes in the metal plate and enters the boiling water below. The result? Foam everywhere, ruining the eggs and necessitating a restart.

I suspect that there is something in the kitchen - vinegar, salt, whatever - that I can use to neutralise the foaming thus allowing the eggs to continue cooking as normal. Albumen is mostly water plus a few proteins and it's obviously the protein that creates the foam. What will neutralise the protein and prevent the foam reaction?

Any ideas?

Ben

 

[BenBennetts]

Footnote to my question.

I don’t want a solution based on an alternative way of poaching eggs. I know about techniques based on dropping eggs into a saucepan of vinegar-laced boiling or near-boiling swirling water. I want to know how to stop the water from foaming if I accidentally get some of the albumen into the boiling water when I use my poacher. I like my poacher!

Ben

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Footnote to my question.

I don’t want a solution based on an alternative way of poaching eggs. I know about techniques based on dropping eggs into a saucepan of vinegar-laced boiling or near-boiling swirling water. I want to know how to stop the water from foaming if I accidentally get some of the albumen into the boiling water when I use my poacher. I like my poacher!

Ben

i have an egg poacher like yours. The egg is foaming because you are boiling the water to fast. Simply lower the temperature, so that the water is still boiling, but not so hard. I don't put the egg-cups in until the water is boiling. That way, I usually don't end up over-filling the cups, and the butter remains cold so that it coats the cup when I put the egg into it. I also add a bit of S&P to the cups before adding the egg, then season very lightly on top. One more thing, my egg cups won't comfortably hold extra-large, or jumbo eggs. So I never cook anything bigger than large grade.

As for other poaching methods, that you don't want to hear, if you bring the water to a boil, seasoned with S&P, and then back it off until it is still, but hot, you can drop the eggs directly in, without vinegar, or swirling the water. Imply use a butter-coated ladle to hold the egg, dip it and the egg into the water and hold just until the white starts turning white, then release into the water. The egg will remain in one mass, and come out so delicate, with perfect seasoning, and done to the stage you like your egg. It makes an amazing poached egg. I hated eggs poached in water, and tried the vinegar and swirl method, and others, and didn't know about seasoning the water. Until I tried the method I just described, the poaching pan eggs were my all time favorite eggs. Now, they are in 2nd place.

I believe that name for the way I poach my eggs is - coddled eggs.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Update - I just looked up "coddled egg" here - Coddled egg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
By definition, if you lower the temp of your poaching pan water so that it no longer boils, you are making a coddled egg. And yes, this will prevent your egg white from foaming. I guess my water immersion technique is a poached egg after all.

Use either a coddled egg, or a poached egg to make Eggs Benedict. It will change your life for the better.

Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[menumaker]

Slow down, you move too fast.......Chief is right. Lower your heat, what you are after is to see the tiny bubbles in the water under the cups just playing nicely and quietly! It's also possible that you are using good big eggs that are a bit large for the cups in your pan? So, either get med. or small ( ....no, don't do that ) or try the other method that Chief suggests which truly works like a dream believe me.

 

[Mad Cook]

OK, so I'm nit-picking but this discussion is not about poached eggs. Strictly speaking it's about oeufs en cocotte which are a different kettle of fish (to mix metaphors).

Poaching involves the eggs, fish, chicken or whatever being cooked gently in the liquid not in containers above it.

No probs if oeufs en cocotte are what you want. I agree with the above post which said you need either smaller eggs or larger individual containers - oeufs en cocotte are traditionally cooked in little porcelain ramekins (or I use those glass ramekins that come with GU desserts - waste not, want not!) in a bain marie or water bath with a lid, either on top of the stove or in the oven. IMO The top of the stove is easier as you can keep an eye on them. I make several of them them for dinner party "starters" in a Spanish covered electric pan with a glass lid that I bought for making paella (like this
Buffalo CC729 Electric Multipan - but a lidded frying pan or skillet would do fine)

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

You can give it a French name if you want. I even agree that what is being made in the pan with the cups isn't really a poached egg. But here's a similar pan to what I own - Demeyere Egg Poacher | Bloomingdale's

All pans I've ever seen of this type, any brand name you choose, is called an egg poaching pan. From the definition that I found earlier, it more resembles a pan for making coddled eggs, if you're using the the name from the British Aisles.

Anyway you look at it, the answer was given to the op, use smaller eggs to prevent spillovers, and lower the stove temperature. The other info was just that, added information.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[BenBennetts]

Thanks to all of the above who have replied. I have a few follow-on comments, and a question.

First, I have tried reducing the boil rate of the water once the foam starts to appear but to no avail. Once the albumen is in the water, that’s it. No amount of fiddling with the gas flow works. The only thing to do is curse and throw the eggs and water away and start again.

Second, I am partial to poached duck eggs. They are larger than chicken eggs, as pointed out by Chief Longwind and MenuMaker, and they are often the cause of the problem because the poacher pots are not designed for anything over a standard size egg. Now I eat my duck eggs boiled, not poached!

Third, I am a Brit living in the UK. (I need to work out how to add UK after Fareham in my profile.) My wife and I used to own a 16th century farmhouse and we populated the house with ancient things including a couple of Victorian egg coddlers. Egg coddlers are not ramekins. An egg coddler is a small china pot with a metal screw top lid. The egg is broken into the pot; the lid is screwed down, tight; and the whole kit and caboodle is fully immersed in rolling boiling water for around 7 or 8 minutes. The coddled egg, when ready, is superb.

When we moved from the farm, we either gave or threw away the coddlers. I regret that now. A coddler would have taken a full size duck egg. I’ve not worked out how to insert an image in these replies but if you google Royal Worcester Egg Coddlers and switch to Images you will see what I’m talking about. We owned the Victorian equivalent of the coddlers with cherries on, called Evesham.

Fourth, thanks for all the alternative methods of poaching/coddling/oeufs-en-cocotting the eggs. I will try some of the techniques.

Last, I appreciate the answers you have all given me but nobody has yet answered my question – what can I put in the water to stop the foaming once the albumen has entered it?

Ben

 

[BenBennetts]

I figured out how to say where I am located and how to post an image of myself. I'm posing with a medieval cross called Fat Betty. She's located on a long distance trail called the Coast-to-Coast in the north of England. (I'm a long-distance walker when I'm not poaching eggs.)

Now I need to find out how to upload an image from my laptop hard drive into a posting.

 

[Silversage]

If you break an egg open on a plate, you'll see three distinct parts to the egg. The yolk, the thick white, and the thin white. As an egg ages, the thick egg white, which mounds up around the yolk, slowly breaks down into a thin, watery, less viscous egg white. It's this thinner part that's causing your difficulty. When it gets in the water, it doesn't hold together in a mass like the thicker white does. It dissipates and clouds up the water as you're observing.

Kenji Alt did a good article on poaching eggs on The Food Lab at Serious Eats. He breaks the egg into a fine mesh strainer, and rolls is around a bit. The loose, watery part of the white will drain away. Now when you lower the egg into the water, it holds together as a mass. Although he wasn't addressing this problem specifically, a side effect is that the thin white isn't there to cloud the water or create those unsightly strings of egg white floating around.

Since trying Kenji's method, I just strain, drop in water, and they're good to go every time.

An adjunct to this......I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that in parts of Europe, it's not standard practice to refrigerate eggs. The thick white breaks done much more quickly in to thin white at room temperature. If you don't already, try storing fresh eggs in the fridge. It may also help. Cold eggs poach more nicely.

 

[menumaker]

I wasn't going to get involved with the 'coddled' egg discussion only because that wasn't really what you were asking but, yes, egg coddlers are wonderful and I love cooking them in my old ones. Have you tried to find any on Ebay? might be worth a look?? Now, just to raise a few eyebrows ( am I going to regret this? ) I cook my 'boiled' eggs like this. I put them (with shells on of course), in my electric kettle. Yes, you have read that right. Add enough cold water to cover and switch on. As the water boils, the kettle switches off and I then time for 6 minutes. They come out perfect and believe it or not it helps to get rid of any scale build up in the kettle.

 

[BenBennetts]

Ha! Now we're getting there. Thanks Silversage for your thin/thick white explanation. That all makes sense. You might have solved the problem because, being a European, I don't (strictly, my wife doesn't) store eggs in a 'fridge. They sit on the worktop in the kitchen even though I see that there is a place in the 'fridge to place eggs. Maybe I'll put eggs for poaching in the bespoke place in the 'fridge and leave the rest outside? Thanks again to all of you who have responded to my request for help. I'll let you know how I get on.

Ben
-----------------------------------------
"If your dog is fat, you're not getting enough exercise." (Anon)

 

[CWS4322]

I too have misplaced my egg coddlers...I keep imagining that they must be in one of those many boxes somewhere...

I eat 2 poached eggs almost every day. The eggs are as fresh as they come (still warm from the hen). The fresher the egg, the more the white adheres to the yolk. I use warm eggs. I don't store eggs in the fridge until after I wash them (once the bloom is removed). I read once that eggs 0-48 hours old are the best for poaching...I don't think the temp of the egg matters. The freshness most definitely does.

 

[dcSaute]

I have a mantra . . . the best solution to a problem is not to create it.

methinks you've nailed the problem - the egg volume is too much for the cup size, the white overflows into the water below.
the older the egg, the less viscous the white - if it gets real thin, certainly isn't going to help the situation. super fresh the white may be cohesive enough to 'rise up' by capillary action over the 'rim' of the cup and 'stay put'

so...to the question of how to stop the foaming....
not had the problem, but some quick surfing sez: a couple drops of oil in the water.

the vinegar trick may work - if the pan / cup insert is aluminum, the acid will discolor it; too much acid / long term may result in etching/pitting.....

acids have the same effect as heat on proteins - only the protein strands are 'de-natured' chemically. this is the basis behind vinegar in the water.

for "true poaching" - the acid causes the white to contract/shrivel up/congeal 'immediately' - so the white does not string out in the poaching water.

silicone compounds are also used to impede foaming; seems a bit much for the home kitchen, tho....

when I have a crowd to feed, I use a large, deep fry pan with water brought to a soft simmer, heat proof clear glass bowls (which double for mise en place) spray lightly with vegetable oil, crack the egg into the glass bowl, float in the simmering water. I have a sufficient number of glass bowls I can pump out a decent "production quantity" with little disruption.

the beauty of the bowls in your case is: they'll take a big egg!

 

[BenBennetts]

Thanks to all who have contributed. I now know the cause of the problem; I have several solutions to try; and I have several alternative ways of poaching eggs, including the larger duck eggs. Life is potentially wonderful again. A-poaching I will go. Thanks again.

Ben
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"There's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing." (Alfred Wainwright)

 

[FrankZ]

believe it or not it helps to get rid of any scale build up in the kettle.

I find it curious. Aren't egg shells calcium? Isn't scale also caused by calcium?

Or am I misguided?

 

[taxlady]

I find it curious. Aren't egg shells calcium? Isn't scale also caused by calcium?

Or am I misguided?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

[taxlady]

If you decide to store eggs in the fridge, be sure to store them in the carton. Otherwise they can start to dry out and to absorb odours from other food the fridge.

 

[Addie]

I am with Mad Cook. I have several custard cups and when I have several folks who want poached eggs, I drop the eggs into well butter-greased custard cups and put the cups into barely simmering water. I have a SS 12" sauté pan and can fit several cups in it all at the same time. The cups are big enough to hold even a jumbo egg. Which is about the same size as a duck egg.

Any egg like most protein foods need gentle heat. Don't bring the water to a full boil and then lower to a simmer. You only want to see tiny bubbles sitting on the bottom of the pan. Bring the water to "just" a bare simmer. Then place the custard cups in the water. Use enough water so that it comes half way up the custard cup. You will still have your eggs poached the way you like to do them, but without all that miserable foaming. It may take a bit longer for them to completely cook through. But if you can, place a cover on them as in Mad Cook's pan. But watch the heat and bubbles so that they don't break through the top of the water. You may need to turn the heat down even lower. If the custard cups protrude above the top of the pan, then use a piece of foil to cover them. Or just place the pan lid on the edges of the cups.

If you don't have any custard cups on hand, then measure one egg in a measuring cup to determine how many ounces it is. Then when and if you decide to purchase some custard cups, you will know just how big you need to have them. Does this answer your question?

Good luck.

 

[Addie]

If you decide to store eggs in the fridge, be sure to store them in the carton. Otherwise they can start to dry out and to absorb odours from other food the fridge.

Excellent advice TL. Don't store them on the shelf on the door. Worst place for eggs.