Square of cling film over the top of a cup making a "bowl"
Break the egg in and pull up the corners and twist into a little eggy packet with no air at the top.Repeat for as many as you need.
Kettle on and fill a pan with boiling water - no salt, no vinegar needed.
Add all the eggs at the same time and set a timer for 5 minutes.
Pull them all out and unwrap onto kitchen paper or a board then onto the toast.
No horrible eggy pan to clean up, no soggy water on the toast, no eggy beard on the the outside,always cooked on the outside and soft in the middle data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
I swirl the hot water in the pan and drop the egg into the 'whirlpool'.Usually does the trick.
I saw a cookery show by the Hairy Bikers and they suggested boiling the egg for about 10 seconds or so, just to loosely set the shape.It works, though you have to be careful when cracking the egg.
For the eggs, I try to use freshly bought ones.
How can you tell they are ready?
I just get a slotted spoon to get the egg out after around two minutes, and then I prod it with the back of a teaspoon.
The softness/hardness tells me how 'done' the egg is.
Tried the frying pan/ water method today for lunch. Worked well but for us I think I will reduce the time to 8 mins instead
Use those green poachpods, don't get a hotel quality result, but fast and easy.
I tried something similar with silicone cupcake moulds but found they only cooked well if I covered the pan once I'd put the eggs in and it was easy to get splashes on water on the eggs.
The moulds were a pita to clean up so I went back to the clingfilm method which I got off some telly chef.
Frying/sauté pan with boiling water just enough to cover the eggs. Use a spoon to tip a bit of hot water from the pan over the eggs a bit. Perfect.
Poach pods are a pain as pointed out. Cling film works but can be a bit messy too, if you need to poach more than a couple of eggs at once.
I do six at a time in the pan with no issues. Works for us, and I was taught by my grandma who was a home economics teacher she said loads of clever methods, but this one was easiest if not as pretty as the vortex style.
I use the Vortex method but I don't turn the heat off, I just reduce the heat so its not frothing over, there done in about 3 minutes as well.
I use the vortex method as well. Add a little vinegar to water as it heats in a saucepan, bring to the boil, turn the heat down, crack open upto 2 eggs and drop into the centre of the pan.