Birthday Blender & Poached Eggs

KitchenAid 5-Speed Custom Metallic Blenders

If you follow my tweets, you will have noticed that I’ve been obsessively trying to learn to cook poached eggs — and eating a lot of not-quite-poached eggs in the process. My results were much improved by an awesome YouTube video showing a poaching technique that uses a bowl and vinegar. What is an egg poacher? And how does albumin in the egg white cause it to coagulate? I’m still not sure, but I’m now eating properly poached egg in ramen and on english muffins. Yay!

So, with that success, I decided it was time to make hollandaise sauce. Crazy for a girl who doesn’t cook, but I’m on a roll. My friend John suggested a recipe that requires a blender, so with my birthday coming up, I decided to order one.

I looked in a few stores and finally ordered a Kitchenaide from Amazon. I was a little afraid to get one sight unseen because it is hard to judge quality from a photo, but it came today and it looks like the iphone of blenders. It is a sexy blender. W00t!

I also got a slotted spoon, because I was in a kitchen gizmos kind of mood, and, it really is difficult making poached eggs without one.

Surprised to see me posting about non-tech stuff? Check out my post about being shy and being myself on the internets. When the blender came in the mail today, I was inspired to write my first non-tech post in a long time.


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17 responses to “Birthday Blender & Poached Eggs”

  1. Michael Kozakewich Avatar

    Doesn’t Hollandaise also require a double-boiler? If the sauce itself reaches a boil, it’s ruined.

  2. Nicole Sullivan Avatar

    @Michael – I have *no* idea! I’ll have to write another post after I try it. The blender just came in the mail.

  3. Johny Avatar
    Johny

    The whole trick (/most important thing) about poached eggs is not to use day fresh eggs.
    This may sound odd, but if you use fresh ones your egg white will spread too fast when pouring it in the pan.
    Just make sure they are not rotten (to test it you can just put the egg in normal temperature water in its shell, if it floats its a bad egg (gasses etc) if it sinks its good.
    Also required is a pan of boiling water with a little vinegar (to make the egg white stick faster together) and a spoon for turning the water around.

    general setup.
    take a non fresh egg, pour that in small bowl (for faster pouring), get a pan and boil the water, drop some vinegar in it, use a spoon to make a small tornado like shape in the pan with boiling water. pour the egg in the water in the center of the tornado. Et voila you should have the best poached egg ever.
    Btw egg white only needs 70 degrees to be cooked. (so if it could be a nice idea to boil the water and remove the heath (so no more boiling bubbles are interrupting/destroying your sticking process)

    Have fun 😉

    P.s. i am not a native speaker so if some sentences sound weird that’s the reason 😀

  4. Johny Avatar
    Johny

    happy birthday btw 😀

  5. Philip Tellis Avatar

    The Albumin and the Yolk are made of different types of proteins and they denature at different temperatures. A little acid aids in strengthening the bonds of the denatured proteins. Vinegar achieves this effect. Cream of tartar can also be used.

  6. Jesse Avatar

    I’ve been using a slice of bread with a hole cut out to corral an egg as I cook it. I remember a friend’s father calling it a “bird in a nest” at some point when I was a kid. But now I think I’ll try poach egg on toast for a little while. Thanks for the link!

  7. EC Avatar

    Like you, I’m a developer who wanted to learn how to cook. It took quite a while to get the hang of things, but I consider my self pretty darn good now. If you wan’t some more great videos like the one in your post, check out foodwishes.blogspot.com, there is some great material there.

    FYI: I found your site after watching the Big Web Show, nice work.

    Good luck.

  8. Brian Crescimanno Avatar

    Hi Nicole,

    I’d be wary of a recipe for hollandaise sauce that requires a blender; the sharp blades and chopping type motion of a blender likely isn’t going to give you the results you’re looking for. 🙁 A double boiler and a wire whisk are better tools for that job, imo.

    For the poached eggs, remember to get the water just short of boiling.

    It’s tough–but eggs benedict are so worth this effort! Good luck!

  9. Estelle Avatar

    If the Hollandaise doesn’t work out, you still need a blender to make frozen margaritas. So, no matter what, that blender can be put to good use 😀

    Happy birthday!

    1. Nicole Sullivan Avatar

      @estelle – I like how you think!

  10. Philip Tellis Avatar

    @Jesse: they’re called golfer’s eggs. Here’s my recipe: http://food.bluesmoon.info/2003/11/golfers-egg.html

  11. Susan Kitchens Avatar
    Susan Kitchens

    No blender nor double boiler necessary for Hollandaise. The wonderful Julia Child devised a recipe where the emulsion of butter, egg, and lemon takes place in a saucepan. She says to control the temperature of the delicate substance by whisking in some cold butter into the heated egg&lemon, then slowly whisking in the remaining melted butter. Foolproof. Works every time.

    (Source The Way To Cook, and, probably, Mastering the Art of French Cooking)

  12. Tim Avatar

    Food processors actually work better for making hollandaise sauce. Don’t believe everyone and the double boiler stirring forever technique. It is prone to mistakes and frustration and a sauce that is no different then using a simpler technique. (I know since I make this sauce almost every Sunday)

    Just take a normal recipe and run it through a small food processor and within 20 seconds you’ll have nice creamy sauce.

  13. Nelson Menezes Avatar

    Re. the poached eggs problem… I’ve found the best guide ever: http://www.b3ta.com/features/howtopoachanegg/

    The “Vash Clingfilm Stampede” technique at the bottom of the page is definitely a winner.It’s so easy it feels like cheating!

  14. Oli Avatar

    I like this one
    http://www.eeecooks.com/recipes/2002/01/13/hollandaise_sauce
    be warned it makes a *ton* — quarter it for Eggs Benny for two.

  15. Michael Avatar

    Not a comment on hollandaise but we use the Nordicware two egg microwave poacher and it is great: 40 seconds & you have two nicely poached eggs.

  16. Dom Avatar
    Dom

    I never comment on blogs, especially when I’m actually looking for some tips on css but perfect poached eggs have been an obsession of mine since I was a teen (weird I know). Anyway I have to tell you that you are all wrong. The trick to perfect poached eggs is that there is no trick, ignore all TV chefs and recipe books. You don’t need a, poacher, don’t use vinegar, don’t do anything with a spoon, you don’t even need to do a poached egg dance.

    You simply need to get some water in a pan lightly to the boil and gently break an egg in there. Make sure there’s a enough water so that it covers the egg, pop the lid on for 20-30 seconds so that the water boils up a bit and it’s done take the pan off the heat. Get your toast or whatever sorted out and scoop out your perfect eggs.

    Using vinegar changes the egg’s texture very slightly and it changes their taste in subtle way too so don’t do it. The only thing that would ruin this is if your eggs are too fresh, they’ll split apart or the white will break up. For poached eggs use eggs from the refrigerator. If they’ve been in a night or so the white will be more viscous and perfect for poaching.