CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I find creating the vortex and dropping the egg in the center of it works for me. Remove from heat, cover, and wait about 4-5 minutes if you want a runny yolk. Also, if doing more than one, to lower the custard cup into the water and cook it in the cup. Some people use rings or cupcake liners. If your white is breaking up, it could be the eggs are not fresh. Eggs in stores can be 1 week to almost 52 weeks old, at least here in Ontario. Because of the egg marketing board, eggs can sit in a warehouse for almost 12 months before they hit the supermarket shelf. Although, usually, the 12 month-old eggs are sent to be turned into powdered eggs. If the eggs are from a USDA-inspected location, the carton must contain a packed date and the expiry date cannot be more than 45 days later than the packed date. However, eggs are not necessarily packed the same day they are laid. To determine if you have old eggs, take your eggs out of the fridge, put them in a pitcher of water. Do the whole carton to determine which eggs in the carton are the freshest eggs. Any that float are older than 1 week and the white will not adhere to the yolk as tightly as it would with eggs that are less than one week old (any that do not float or remain partially suspended are fresher than the eggs that rise to the top). This is the nature of eggs and not much you can do about it if you don't have access to fresh eggs.
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