Poaching eggs is a skill that takes a little practice but it’s worthwhile for anyone wanting to rustle up a tasty brunch or fancy dinner-party starter

When you’ve mastered poaching, try your hand at cooking classic recipe favourites such as Eggs Benedict and Eggs Florentine.

How to poach an egg in four easy steps:

1. Use a deep, large pan to poach an egg. Fill it with plenty of water – be generous! Add a pinch of salt and a dash of white wine vinegar. This will help set the egg.
2. Bring the water to the boil and crack the egg into the water. You may want to crack it into a ramekin first – using a separate vessel helps the egg keep its shape.
3. Let the egg set for 2-5 minutes depending on how runny you want it. You can use a slotted spoon to take it out and lightly squeeze it to test.
4. When the cooking time is complete, carefully remove the poached egg from the boiling water using a slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain.

View our video guide on how to poach an egg

Top tips

• For lots of recipe ideas using poached eggs, like the every-popular Eggs Benedict, put ‘poached’ into the recipe search engine!
• For extra speed use the microwave. Carefully crack the egg into a large teacup or ramekin dish filled with ½ tbsp of water. Use a cocktail stick to pierce the yolk and the white in a couple of places and poach in the microwave on HIGH for 40 seconds (750 watt oven)/ 60 seconds (650 watt oven). Stand for one minute and serve.
• For easy to use egg poaching gadgets, including a microwave egg poacher, click here.