Sous Vide Poached Eggs
 

I recently saw an episode of America's Test Kitchen in which they poached eggs using sous vide. I was intrigued so I though I'd give it a try.

The ATK method is different from the seriouseats.com method. It's much simpler and quicker. In the ATK method, the eggs are cooked in the shell.

So I heated up my 8" CI skillet and started heating up some hash. The SV water bath was set to 167ºF and ready to go. Eggs directly from the fridge into the water bath. 12 minutes of cooking and then into an ice bath for one minute.

Crack the shell and open the cooked egg over the hash and viola! You can modify the cooking time slightly for firmer eggs. I'd go with an increase of no more than 30 seconds at a time.

This method probably isn't worth it for one or two people as it takes time for the water bath to heat up and then the 12-13 minutes for the egg to be done. However, if you need to poach a dozen eggs for a larger crowd, It's ideal.

I guess you could argue these are not poached eggs as they are cooked in the shell. Call them what you like, they are great on the plate.

I wouldn't go to all this trouble here Andy, but you might. At any rate, it's pretty interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-zR7TMIUI

Thanks Kayelle. I'll file that away for a special occasion.

Those crispy eggs sound interesting.

In the early '70s, the first "fancy" meal I tried to cook was Julia Child's Napolean Chicken involving chicken surrounded by four big croutons, two topped with garlicky sautéed giant prawns and two with eggs poached, deep-fried really, in olive oil. Did it several times and got a little better each time but the kitchen always looked like a bomb went off. Don't cook "fancy" anymore.

Also kind of reminds me of certain Reddit threads devoted to the Cult of the Sous Vide, or Instant Pot, or Whichever appliance deemed deserving of slavish devotion. Not saying DC members become obsessed with an appliance or method in that way, but suspect you know what I'm talking about.

Thanks Andy! I have been cooking sous vide for about three years, and have not tried eggs in any form. I should probably give this a try.

CD

???
 

I don't have a Sous Vide and don't see one in the near future - but I like the idea of being able to cook a whole bunch of poached eggs at one time.

Question I have, even if you leave all the eggs out to reach room temperature and dump them in the sous vide all at once - isn't that going to throw the timing off while it tries to come back to temp? Each time a different number of eggs are used one would have to recalculate the timing again?

Depending on how big a container you have. A larger container holds more water so the temp drop won't be as bad. Recovery with the SV circulator is pretty quick. According to the ATK video, you can do up to 12 eggs at a time.

Exactly!

A large sous vide water container will not drop much in temperature, and will recover VERY quickly.

CD

ahhh,,, and so I sleep wiser tonight,

I just came across that ATK video on how to poach eggs using sous-vide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzTS...em-uploademail

This is the video of what I described in the OP.

Yup, that was what I meant.

Thanks.

Hmmm... maybe there is a reason to get a sous vide cooker (love eggs Benedict). Are they still hot after that ice bath? or simply warm?

Which sous vide unit do you use, and how long does it take to heat 4 quarts of water to 167°F? And would there be any issues in heating the water on the stove top to say 155° before transferring to the sous vide bath to speed things up?

The eggs from the ATK video, I would do.

However in the fancy Crispy Eggs video above, I see that he puts all the eggs in a plastic bag filled with water and that makes more sense to me and is easier. All the eggs will enter and exit the SV water at the same time making them the exact same doneness. You can just dump out the hot water from the plastic bag, and put the whole bag in the ice bath as shown.
The water may come down in temp with them entering the water at the same time, so I think I'd add 1 min. to the 12 min. time required.

Thanks... so the major differences between the "Nano" and "Precision" models appear to be that the "Precision" is WiFi connected, with 25% more heating power, and the "Nano" is Bluetooth. Obviously the WiFi will have better range, but it also seems like it has "away from home" control. Do you know if I am correct in that assumption?

Sounds about right. There are 1200 watt, 1000 watt and 750 watt models I bought the cheapest one os a pre-Christmas sale for $69. I have no complaints. The higher powered models will hear up faster and with wi-fi you have long range control. I didn't feel I needed wi-fi as I'm mostly at home.

That's a great price Andy. SC paid $100 for my Anova a couple years ago. I too have no use for the one with wi-fi.