Your Sous Vide Machine Is The Secret To Soft, Delectable Egg Dishes

Egg proteins can be tricky to cook. Consider an overcooked hard-boiled egg — the white becomes rubbery, the yolk turns green, and the whole mess smells like sulfur — definitely not appealing! Trying to cook a poached egg to just the right texture is even more of a challenge without lots of experience. Using the low, precise heat of a sous vide machine is a great way to get exactly the right poached egg consistency with soft whites and a warm, liquid yolk. The same applies if you are craving a soft-boiled egg with a perfectly set egg white and thick, saucy yolk. As a bonus, the machine can keep the eggs warm while you serve your own brunch rush at home.

The machine heats water in a container to a precise temperature, pumping it gently to keep the heat even all around. Most foods are sealed in bags before being dunked in the water for a long, slow bath that yields perfectly cooked food. Eggs, however, come in their own hard shell container, perfect for water-bath cooking. The nearly effortless process simply involves placing the eggs in the water of the sous vide machine for a while with no stress about overcooking.

Famous chefs all seem to have their own preferred method for making poached eggs, but none of them are more foolproof than sous-vide poached eggs. Sous vide is an especially practical approach when making more than two or three eggs to ensure they're all ready at the same time. Otherwise, you've got to carefully keep an eye on each egg as it goes in a simmering water bath, avoid crowding them all, and take measures to not overcook the first egg that went in or undercook the last one that went in! There's no better way to prepare poached eggs for Eggs Benedict for several people than with a sous vide machine.

Sous vide the eggs at 145 F for an hour to get the perfect poached texture: firm whites with a warm and runny yolk. You can serve the eggs right away on top of a salad or creamy avocado toast, or chill them in an ice bath to save for later. To warm them back up, bring the water bath up to 130 F and dunk the eggs for 10 minutes.

Another egg challenge is getting the yolk of a soft-boiled egg just right. Unlike traditional egg poaching, a soft-boiled egg cooks inside its shell, keeping the texture a surprise until you crack it open. The sous vide technique can reliably create yolk that's perfect for dipping toast points with soft and creamy whites that are not overcooked.

Soft-cooked egg whites should be firm — almost the texture of a hard-boiled egg, which requires a little more heat than the soft white of sous-vide poached eggs. 167 F for just 13 minutes should get you a nicely set white enclosing a golden liquid yolk. Pop your warm egg in an egg cup and enjoy right away with toast for breakfast, or save it for your next bowl of ramen. You can transform your soft-boiled egg by marinating it in soy sauce for the ultimate flavor upgrade, all made easier with the sous-vide technique!