This weekend’s gastronomical experiment: Can you poach just an egg yolk?
One of my favorite things in the world is a dippy egg’s yolk flowing into virtually anything it’s put atop: rice, toast, bacon, oatmeal, chick pea salad, you name it.
Thing is, the whites are usually an afterthought. They’re something in the way of the now yolk-sodden food. Meanwhile, I do like using egg whites for other stuff. Worse, when frying up a dippy egg, the line between “perfectly dippy” and “solid mass of sulfurous, mouth-coating nasty” is very, very thin indeed.
Something must be done. So, I elected to attempt an experiment.
A trick my wife had shown me early in our relationship was how to microwave poach an egg. It’s a simple trick: a coffee mug full of water, a tablespoon of vinegar. Microwave on high for 45 seconds. Open an egg and carefully add to the water. Microwave at 50% for 45 seconds, and repeat until the egg whites go fully white. This produces a perfect poached egg, suitable for spreading on toast. Moreover, the yolk gets to that wonderful “sauce” texture I love so.
I wanted to try this with just a yolk. I separated an egg (crack an egg, separate the shell halves carefully, with the crack parallel to the ground. Now, pass the yolk between the shells and let the whites drop into the bowl), and tried this trick using only the yolk. I reasoned that, since the glass is full of water, even the cooking time should be the same, since the water molecules capture most of the microwaves one way or the other anyway. There’s a little glob of protein that adheres to the yolk, which is wikapparently called a “chalaza”. That should work as my telltale, in the absence of the ablumen of the egg whites.
It came out perfectly, and so, a recipe for an ingredient:
Poached Yolk
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 1 c water (c is for coffee mug)
- 1 tbsp vinegar (cider or white, not balsamic)
Tools:
- 1 Coffee mug
- 1 Microwave
- 1 bowl
Directions:
- Combine water and vinegar in cup. Microwave for 45 seconds to a minute. Remove from microwave when beeped, and set aside.
- Separate egg white into bowl. Set aside.
- Drop yolk carefully into cup. Should drop to bottom.
- Microwave at 50% power for 45 seconds. Repeat until chalaza (protein knot) is fully opaque.
You now have a perfectly cooked yolk. Pierce it and optionally mix with seasoning for a wonderful sauce; thin with vinegar, oil and seasonings for a dressing - or just break it over a hunk of buttered toast for sheer culinary awesomeness.
Update
On G+, one person stated that they do not own a microwave. As such, here’s a version for the stovetop.
Ingredients:
- 1 egg
- 4 c water (c is for coffee mug)
- 4 tbsp vinegar (cider or white, not balsamic)
- Pinch of salt
Tools:
- 1 small pot
- 1 stove
- 1 wooden spoon
- 1 bowl
Directions:
- Separate egg white into bowl. Set aside.
- Combine salt, water and vinegar in pot on high until bubbles form a consistent layer (about 80C / 175F). Drop heat to low.
- Give water a swirlie
- Drop yolk carefully into pot via wooden spoon. Should drop to bottom.
- Cook for one minute
- Remove pot from heat. With wooden spoon just under / next to yolk, carefully pour water into sink. You’ll have to use the spoon to carefully detach the yolk from the pot’s bottom.