Elliott and I eat a lot of eggs. Probably almost every day, or at least every other day. And I prefer them poached although we also eat them fried. If we are having just eggs as our protein source then I will eat about 3 for breakfast. So Elliott will eat 4 just to eat more than me. As it turns out poaching 7 eggs is not that easy. We poach them in boiling water. I have found a skillet works best. I fill it with water that ends up being roughly 2 inches deep. Bring the water to a boil and drop the eggs in. My cookbook says to drop them in gently so I use a coffee cup for this so I can get really close to the water before the slide. I break the egg into the coffee cup and then gently slide the egg into the water, and repeat. Each egg break is done carefully so as not break the yoke and by the end I have used up much of my cooking time dropping in eggs. I prefer the eggs on the runny side, cook for 3 minutes, Elliott likes them between runny and hard, about 3 minutes, 30 seconds. That is a delicate balance to find dropping 7 eggs into the skillet so ultimately the eggs end up being overcooked. The other day I wondered if the eggs actually had to be poured one by one. It seems like each is in its own little casing anyway. So I tried it one day when Elliott was gone and I cooking only for myself. I put two or three eggs into one mug. Got my water boiling and dropped in the eggs all at once. And…. it worked, they cooked separately! This was a wonderful discovery and has made poaching eggs so much easier!
