Ina Garten Has an Easy Method for Perfectly Poached Eggs
Leave it to Ina Garten to make poached eggs easy. The Food Network star and Barefoot Contessa host has been offering up useful cooking tips and tricks for years. And her “How easy is that?” method for getting a perfectly poached egg is no different.
The Barefoot Contessa way to poach eggs requires no vinegar or swirling
Garten is known for her relaxed approach to food. Whether it’s cooking, baking, or having friends over for Sunday brunch, she’s all about keeping things relaxed, stress-free, and fun. For her, that means nothing too complicated. Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa, applies it to everything including poached eggs.
Instead of swirling a vinegar and water mixture to make a poached egg, the Barefoot Contessa takes a different approach. She makes multiple poached eggs — better for serving a crowd — in a saute pan. There’s no vinegar and no swirling. As Garten says, “How easy is that?”
According to Food Network, Garten included her poached egg method in Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust: A Cookbook. Hitting shelves in 2012, the now-72-year-old follows the same steps to make poached eggs for her Eggs Benedict and Easy Hollandaise Sauce recipe.
How to poach an egg the Barefoot Contessa way
Here’s how Garten poaches an egg. She cracks four eggs into their own small bowls. Then she fills a 12-inch saute pan with water until it is half full. From there, she brings it to a boil.
Then come the eggs. Garten gently puts each one in the pan making sure they are separated. She simmers the eggs for two minutes before turning off the heat and letting them sit for another 10 minutes. Then they are ready to eat. No vinegar, no swirling. Perfect poached eggs the Barefoot Contessa way.
Ina Garten likes to keep eggs out of the fridge and on the counter
Celebrity chefs have their own way of doing things in the kitchen. When it comes to baking, Garten likes to keep eggs on the counter instead of in the fridge when she’s baking. She said so while giving NYT Cooking a tour of her “barn” where she films Barefoot Contessa.
“Eggs are better at room temperature for baking,” she explained.
Eggs aren’t the only thing Garten keeps on the counter when she’s cooking or baking. Lemons sit in a bowl on her kitchen island. They are “better at room temperature because they have more juice,” she said.
That’s not all. The Barefoot Contessa host keeps oranges and garlic on the counter too.
