A Completely Foolproof Guide to Perfectly Poaching an Egg

Ditte Isager

Nadine Levy Redzepi had tried all the chef-y methods for poaching an egg: putting vinegar in the water, using a whisk to create a whirlpool in the pot. "I still think I wasted at least one third of the egg white on a good day," she says. Then she learned a new technique from Juan Mari Arzak in Spain, which she describes in her new cookbook, Downtime: Deliciousness at Home, that involves cracking eggs into an oiled piece of plastic wrap and putting the entire pouch in boiling water. You can make one at a time, you can make 10 at a time. You can add extras into the pouch to cook with the egg—"any kind of herbs, or if you had some nice ham," Levy Redzepi suggests—and you can serve it with toast, or on top of cooked greens, or in a bowl of ramen. "It's perfect, and it's foolproof," she promises. Here's how to pull it off.

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4 large eggs

2 tsp. olive oil (or Canola oil)

plastic wrap

kitchen twine

salt

pepper

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1. Line a small bowl or cup with a 10-inch piece of plastic wrap, pressing it down into the bowl and letting the excess hang over the sides. Generously oil the part in the bowl with your fingers or coat it with oil from a spray bottle.*
2. Carefully crack one egg into the lined bowl. Gather up the plastic wrap and twist until you've created a small pouch. Tightly tie the pouch closed with kitchen twine, knotting it as close to the egg as possible. Repeat with the remaining eggs. 
3. Bring a pot of water to a boil. 
4. Carefully drop the egg pouches into the boiling water, making sure the twine doesn't hang over the edge of the pot. Reduce the heat to medium and set a timer for 4 minutes. When the timer goes off, check the eggs: the whites should be just set and opaque. 
5. Move the pot to the sink and run cold water into it until the water is cool enough to fish out the egg bundles and move to a plate. 
6. Pat the egg pouches dry and put each into a small serving bowl. Serve immediately with salt and pepper for seasoning and scissors for releasing the eggs into the serving dishes. 

*Watch that the cutting blade does not make small holes in the plastic wrap when you tear it off the roll, or the egg will leak out.

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