Poached eggs dissolve while cooking?
I typically use a little white vinegar to hold my poached eggs together better while cooking (plus, I like vinegar).
Recently, I ran out of white vinegar and swapped in red wine vinegar instead. The egg white nearly dissolved while cooking, leaving behind only the yolk.
Is this due to the change in vinegar? Or might there be other issues at play (heat, pot, egg quality, etc.)?
Best Answer
The likely contributing factors are (and probably more than one, and perhaps all apply):
- Older, weaker red wine vinegar, which didn't sufficiently acidulate the water to denature the egg white proteins quickly, thus removing their ability to dissolve
- Older eggs, with weaker, looser whites that spread more easily in the poaching liquid, and thus dissolve more easily due to greater surface area
- Lower heat of the poaching liquid which would also slow the cooking of the white, allowing it more time to potentially dissolve before the proteins are denatured from heat, and thus can no longer do so
Pictures about "Poached eggs dissolve while cooking?"
How do you keep poached eggs from sinking?
You don't want to *touch* the egg \u2014 just get the water moving like a whirlpool to encourage the white to wrap around the yolk, so you get a nice, egg-shaped...egg. This will also prevent the egg from sinking to the bottom, which you def do not want.Do cooked poached eggs float?
Therefore, the older the egg, the higher it floats. If an egg shows more than the size of a dime above the water, it's not suitable for poaching; you might want to scramble it instead and wait to poach with fresher eggs.Why do my poached eggs foam?
We've all seen poached eggs with almost no egg white and feathery white foam where the egg white should be. This is because the egg white has mixed with the hot water before setting. Reduce turbulence in the water to prevent the egg white from mixing with the water.Do poached eggs coagulate?
An egg white is comprised almost exclusively of protein, called ovalbumin, and water. When you cook an egg, the ovalbumin starts to denature, meaning it loses it shape and begins to form a white solid through coagulation.POACHED EGGS | how to poach an egg (perfectly)
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Nataliya Vaitkevich, Monstera, Trang Doan, Dana Tentis