Sous Vide Egg Fails

[MarkN]

I love my Anova Sous Vide. Chicken breasts? Great! Any kind of Beef? Great! Eggs? Total fail. I have read that "Eggs are perhaps the poster child for innovative sous vide cooking". I find that not to be the case.

My last failure was my 3rd and final attempt at Sous Vide Poached Eggs. I have tried them at 167^o F for 12 minutes per the ATK Sous Vide for Everybody cookbook, I tried then at 167^o F for 15+ minutes per various sources and finally I tried them at 145.5^o F for 60 minutes. Here is a picture of how all of them turned out (+ or -):



Now then, perhaps the whites are supposed to come out with the texture of snot, but that is not how I like them,

One technique I have not tried is one recommended by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt on the Anova website. He recommends to SV them at 145^o F for 45 minutes and then drop them into simmering water for 1 minute. Since my old school method is to drop a raw egg into simmering water for 3 minutes, I don't really see the point of adding SV into the process.

Similarly, I have tried scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs and omelets in the SV and find that I can get better results and much faster on my stove top.

So, when it comes to warm blooded animal flesh, I am happy with the options I get with a Sous Vide as a back up or to precede grilling or smoking. Eggs are off the list for me.

[CaptainMike]

I've had similar results and have come to the same conclusion, SV eggs are a waste of time and eggs.

[Old Glory]

I have done hard boiled and they came out fine but took 20 minutes rather than the 12 on the stove top.

[tbob4]

I once tried what you have done. Failed, too. However, I love it for egg bites. A mason jar, cheese, bacon or Spam and scrambled eggs - I am off the the races for a week's worth of breakfasts.

[GolfGeezer]

Thank you for posting this. I’ve been tempted to try SV for poaching eggs as my stovetop skills making them are pretty weak. That tempted me to try SV, but now I’ll stick to the stovetop. Rather a weak, but successful, poached egg versus a snotty fail.

[troymeister]

Ernest Has made some awesome looking SV eggs. Perhaps he may share his method with us.

[MBMorgan]

I know this won't help but, FWIW, I tried SV eggs once. It worked as advertised ... but didn't really seem worth the effort so never did it again. I'll revisit SV eggs the next time I need pasteurized near-raw ... but until then, meh.

[klflowers]

Never tried it, but I do boiled eggs in the instant pot all the time. Never tried poached - I don't do many poached eggs - but I'll bet it would work well.

[Smoked Transistors]

Poaching eggs in the microwave using a Pyrex 2 cup measuring cup for 1 minute per egg is my go to way for great poachers . You may need to run a few practice cooks to sse how powerful (wattage) your microwave is.
I start with 1 cup of room tempature water and a teaspoon of vinegar, stir it up and add one egg and nuke it for 1 minute. Of course. if you nuke one egg and then another right afterwords your water is warm and may only need 45-50 seconds to poach the next one. This method is great for topping toast with avacado or just plain toast or English Muffin. Super quich, think ill poach one or more now before football.

[STEbbq]

FWIW, I have made wonderful poached eggs for decades in these types of pans. Super easy and delicious. I am sure I paid less at Walmart.


Eggssentials Egg Poacher Poached Egg Maker, Stainless Steel Egg Poaching Pan, Poached Eggs Cooker Food Grade Safe PFOA Free with Spatula https://a.co/d/7TpIMFM

[rickgregory]

If you want plain poached eggs, SV isn't useful, I agree. Where SV really shines with eggs is where you want a very precise doneness for, say, ramen eggs.

This is the go to read for SV eggs https://www.seriouseats.com/sous-vid...all-about-eggs

[efincoop]

I have had success follow Guga's Sous Vide Everything's "Froached" egg recipes.

https://youtu.be/ZHycMZFok7k

Using this method the egg is poached in the shell, shocked in an ice bath, with the intent to flash fry it later.

I only do this if I have the circulator out for another Sous Vide project. Then I make 4-6 eggs for use during the coming week.

[barelfly]

I’ve tried SV eggs as well and like you, had the hardest time peeling them. They turned out ok but a PITA to peal. I believe that was also hte last time I tried them SV.

Every other time was in simmering water for a few minutes and be done with it.

[MarkN]

Just for a final comparison to the SV poached egg, I poached an egg using the Julia Child method (4 minutes in simmering water).