Earlier today, I posted about Gordon Ramsay's amazing and seemingly magical secret for how to make the perfect poached egg. All day, that's all I could think about. Even as my work day dragged longer and longer, all I could think of was, "I can't wait to go buy some eggs, and poach them!!" I guess we all have different ways of getting through the day.
But finally, my moment came. I was finally home, armed with a fresh carton of extra large, Grade AA "Farm Fresh" eggs. Were they actually farm fresh? Probably not. But that was the best I could do with Trader Joe's.
First things first, I cracked two eggs into little cups, so that I could easily pour them (one at a time, of course) into my whirlpool of simmering water. I couldn't help but arrange my arsenal into a dour =/ face, to mirror the trepidation I was feeling. I spent so long today thinking about poaching an egg, that if I failed in my task, my spirit would be forever crushed.
At this point, I wondered what size pot I needed. I ended up choosing a reasonably sized 3 qt. saucepan. (Afterward, I tried a 2 qt. saucepan, with comical results, but more on that later.) Just like McGee suggested, I brought the water to a rolling boil, then dropped the heat down so the water was just simmering. Then, I just started stirring the water like a madman, simultaneously terrified that I was going to splash boiling water all over myself.
What I noticed with the 3 qt. saucepan was that even if you stir the pot like crazy (I was using the same whipping motion I'd normally use on a large bowl of eggs), the whirlpool dies down really fast. Like maybe five seconds after you stop stirring, it evens out. Still, I had to try it. I got the water churning once again, as fast as I could, and the second I pulled my whisk out of the water, I slipped the egg into the eye of the whirlpool. Then I waited.
At this point, my saucepan did not look pretty. Here's what the inside of the pot looked like. I was pretty pessimistic about the outcome. But Ramsay speaks from experience, and once my three minutes of cooking were up, I reached into the water with a slotted spoon, and pulled out... an amazingly beautiful, egg-shaped poached egg. And just like he said, it looked like a smooth lump of mozzarella. I threw it into cold water immediately, and noticed that all of the raggedy scraps fall right off the egg, leaving a much smoother exterior.
And there it was! I was so proud of myself, I IMed a friend to tell him I poached an egg, and the response on the other end must have been "..." But look how good it looks! Granted... I may have let my "three minutes" turn into "four minutes" out of paranoia, so the yolk wasn't as runny as I would've liked, but I couldn't have been happier with my result.
But what happens when you use a smaller saucepan?
Ah... yeah. About that. So while I was anxiously watching the egg poach in the 3 qt., I started worrying that the pot was too big. I thought maybe if I used a smaller saucepan, the whirlpool would stay longer, thus whipping the egg white around the yolk longer. Well, it does. But it doesn't give the desired result. With my 2 qt. saucepan, the second I dropped in my egg, the yolk got caught up in the tumult, dragging the entire egg askew. The result was a (still yummy) strangely misshapen egg that looked kind of like Africa, which I photographed on the delicious carcass of my former, prettier egg.
vs. 
Lessons learned:
1. Gordon Ramsay is always right.
2. Use at least a 3 qt. saucepan. You could probably use a deeper one, but the diameter of the 3 qt. seemed just right.
3. Three minutes means three minutes. If you leave it in too long, the yolk starts to cook too much.
4. I POACHED AN EGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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