Lékué Egg Poacher (Set of 2) - L11
Poached eggs are a true treat! When done right, they have a firm, but yielding, white around a molten rich yolk, with lots of protein and no extra fat, other than that which the egg contains. They’re wonderful by themselves, over toast, served hot on top of a cold dressed salad, on corned beef hash and, of course, for a real treat, as the centerpiece of eggs benedict.
But as simple as a poached egg is in concept (egg and water, maybe with some supporting characters like a little vinegar and salt), it’s much more difficult in reality to make a consistently good poached egg. There are people who can do it au naturelle, but I, alas, am not one of them. And so, a tool to make really good poached eggs has become the Holy Grail of the kitchen tool industry, with varying levels of success...or not…. We’ve searched for years!
A short history of egg poaching equipment begins with the cups that contained the eggs but kept them above the water, poaching the eggs in the steam of a closed pot. Later came the cups that were submerged in water to contain the egg, and were lifted out and drained when done. The concern with these cups is that if they weren’t heavy enough, then they could tip over, and there goes your egg! Microwave poaching tools were developed in various forms and approaches, mostly with less than satisfactory results. It seemed that nothing could perform better than traditional “swirl and simmer” method but without lots of practice, that’s difficult to achieve consistently and in quantity. Most people need a good tool!
The newest approach to poaching eggs is to drain the raw egg before cooking, losing the excess watery part of the white, leaving you with a much more intact finished product without wispy trailing pieces. Lékué, the very clever Barcelona-based company, has taken this concept to the ultimate level, and we think may have found that Holy Grail.
The bottom of the Lékué Egg Poacher is a stainless steel mesh sieve, which accomplishes 2 important things. First, when you place the mesh over a small bowl and break your egg into it, the excess watery white drains while your water is heating. Second, after you attach the silicone top to the mesh, your egg will cook in direct contact with the simmering water, producing a result very close to a naturally water-poached egg (the ideal). While cooking, the sieve bottom contains the egg, resulting in a nicely even finished product.
The top of the Lékué Egg Poacher is a friendly, BPA-free orange silicone that also performs 2 important functions. First, it encloses and keeps your poacher floating evenly in the simmering water, thus eliminating the “tipping over” problem). And second, it provides a cool-to-the-touch top handle to remove your poacher from the water quickly, to avoid over-cooked (hard!) eggs, and burned fingertips!
Don’t ignore this fact of life: eggs stick! The Lékué Egg Poacher will not resolve that issue, so you will need something to detach the poached egg from the metal mesh, and we love to use the Mini Spoonula for that task. There will be a little clean-up to do, but nothing that a nylon brush can’t deal with, and to make it easier, the Lékué Egg Poacher comes apart easily, and (this is important) reassembles easily.
So even with these few clean-up caveats, this is the best and easiest egg poacher that we have found: great design that is easy to use and enables a beautiful solution to a seemingly intractable problem! This is definitely a Cool Tool!
Facts:
- Metal mesh in the bottom part will allow the egg to cook perfectly and helps eliminate the watery part of egg whites.
- Floats on the simmering water for a perfect even cooking process.
- Easy to retrieve from the water: just grab the poacher by the tip without burning your fingers.
- BPA free Platinum Silicone with Stainless steel.
- Diameter: 4” / 10cm
- Dishwasher safe
