# Poaching Egg Yolk Only?



## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

This is for just for home cooking.....

My question is - does anyone out there have any experience of separating the yolk from its white, and just poaching the yolk?

I love poached eggs, but feel the white is a bit of a waste of time and don't really enjoy it. Would you still need a splash of vinegar in the water, or given that there is no white, you don't need it? And for how long for a soft poach? Or maybe just get rid of most of the white..... I know I could just experiment (and probably waste a lot of eggs), wanted to see if anyone else did this.

Any comments appreciated  Thanks!

DC

P.S. I tried to search the net and this site for an answer, but couldn't come up with anything to help.


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## tessa (Sep 9, 2007)

the vinegar sets the white, you could always give the whites to the cats or dogs, its very good for them,
Im sure you could just do the yolks why dont you give it a try, i think it would be really tasty


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

You won't need vinegar (as tessa said). Too bad we don't live near each other- I prefer the whites.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

I really want you to try doing it and let us know how it works. My curiosity has been driving me nuts since the thread was started. What kept me from chiming in was not only a total lack of experience, but mystification in terms of motivation. The application escapes me in terms of how I understand a poached egg should be served; i.e., white set, and the yolk still (at least slightly) liquid. In practice, when poaching the white protects the yolk from overcooking. In service, it is a way of bringing "egg sauce" to the dish. 

Of course eggs are definitely one of the most intensely personal of the "your mileage may vary" foods; and you may like your poached eggs cooked through. I don't mean to pass judgment on your taste in eggs -- and can almost guarantee that you don't like them as underdone as I prefer mine. To my mind, slow roasting in the shell, or proper "hard-boiling" does a better job of presenting a fully or near-fully set yolk.

To slow roast or bake an egg -- Place as many x-large eggs as you like on a baking sheet in a cold oven. Set the oven to run at 190 or 200 and bake the eggs for 1 hour. Ovens vary and you may have to fool around with this a little to get your temperature right. This assumes your oven can hold that low a temperature with reasonable stability, some old thermostats have too wide a deadband. You can also cook eggs this way in a crock-pot. If you want to serve warm, hard-but-not-overcooked eggs, as though cooked in a fire's ashes... this is a wonderful method. 

The "French" method for boiling an egg, is to place between three and 18 eggs in a pot of appropriate size with enough (unsalted) water to cover by an inch. Bring, as quickly as possible, to a full boil. Cover and remove from heat. Allow to stand for 4-1/2 minutes ("French," with yolks just set enough to slice), or seven minutes (English/American, with fully set yolks but no dark band). After the desired time, drain the cooking water and replace with fresh, cool tap water, and allow the eggs to stand another 10 minutes before peeling. 

At altitude, you may want to salt the water to raise the boiling point. The number of eggs limits are set so that a home stove will bring the water to a boil within a reasonable time range. 

BDL


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## longfellow (Jun 11, 2008)

He is a tick put a piece of clear wrap into a small cup. then separate the yoke and place in cup.wind the top part of paper and secure with wire bread wrap then place package in hot water. This is how i poach whole eggs sometimes.


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

I guess my motivation for doing it is that, yes, I like to add it like an egg sauce to a dish, but without all the fuss (and extra fat!) of all that butter normally associated with an egg sauce. I like mine warm but very soft, runny and barely cooked at all.

Coddled eggs are great - Mezz - I will post you the whites 

Will give it a go as soon as time permits - my paying job is pretty demanding at the moment.

911 - I've noticed that method for getting a uniform shape to the eggs - a very pretty result it is too. It just might work with the yolk only.

What I'm basically looking for is the tasty, creamy yolk without fussin (sorry Mezz) with the white.

Shall give it a go!

Thanks all - stay tuned. Shall post any results.

DC


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## rpmcmurphy (Jan 8, 2008)

take pictures!


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

DC, I appreciate the gesture.


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Results from some playing with egg yolks....

Room temp egg. Separated yolk from white, had plain filtered inch or so of slowly simmering water in a small pan, pinch of salt. Slid the yolk in from the egg shell - no swirling of the water as with a whole egg - 40 seconds on very slow simmer. There was of course still a touch of the white left clinging to the yolk, which gave it a slight casing to hold it together. Took it out with a slotted spoon, straight onto a rare and rested pepper steak.

Oh yes.....it was YUMMERS! The yolk was smooth, warm and runny, mixed in with the juices from the steak, it made a really delicious dressing. I'm sure this is not a new way of doing things, but I hadn't tried it before, and am very pleased with the result.

I'd like to have taken pictures, just ain't got the technology - one day 

But I'd recommend trying it - at least once. Dead simple for a quick egg sauce. Imagine it on a hot piece of toast or a hot crumpet, or on that Caesars salad BDL posted. Or floating on chicken noodle soup (you could poach it in the soup at the end). The possibilities are endless.

Am glad I've tried it, and willl be doing it again. Thanks for the input everyone 

DC


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Boy, that does sound good. I've put fried eggs, sunny side up, over a breakfast steak before and eaten them all together in one messy pile. I'll have to try this for dinner sometime. Most likely one night when the wife isn't home, she'd whine about my cholestrol, once for the beef and once again for the egg yolk!

mjb.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Gee, what luck, my wife had a performance tonight, I was on my own for dinner. Beet greens cooked with red onion and bacon, topped with some crumbles of roquefort to go alongside a grilled ribeye with a poached egg yolk topping.










Well, it could have been better, I kept overcooking the yolks, didn't get one that was just warm and runny. I was getting hungry, so I ate an overcooked one anyway. Not quite what I was aiming for, but still pretty tasty.

Oh, and RPM, that 'wine glass' was chosen just for you.

mjb.


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Teamfat - it goes well hey? Maybe lower heat on the water, or less time poaching. But it is delicious  That steak looks nice and rare. Great looking side dish, will have to try that


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## tessa (Sep 9, 2007)

so teamfat it was a nice low cholesterol dinner for you last night then hmmmmm:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:


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## rpmcmurphy (Jan 8, 2008)

hehehe. thanks. 

Much appreciate the pictures!!!


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Yep. Tonight the wife will be home for dinner, so it will be something more healthy, perhaps a grilled shrimp salad or such. So it goes.

mjb.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

team buddy,

I've got to say: Next time just (barely) poach a whole egg. The white protects the yolk. No law says you have to eat the white after you puncture the egg. FWIW, garnishing with a poached egg and a couple of slices of anchovy is called _Holstein. _As is said in south Alsace-Lorraine, "I loves me some whole-shtine."

For dinner with the DW try the Casear salad recipe I posted. It would go well with shrimp marinated in a limeade brine, then grilled; and some plain boiled rice.


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## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Well, I have poached an egg or two in my life, doing a yolk only was just an experiment instigated by this thread. I harbor no ill feelings towards the egg whites. Though I cooked the yolk too long it was still a good dinner. As was the shrimp and salad I fixed for my lovely wife, though I went with a salad loaded with yellow bell pepper, red onion, bleu cheese, green celery and tomato instead of a classic ceasar. Maybe next time.

The shrimp turned out great, though not grilled. Maybe I'll post a seperate note about them.

mjb.


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## dillbert (Jul 2, 2008)

DC - tonight is soufflé night - my recipe calls for six egg whites and four yolks in the sauce as I was just about to chuck the other two when the "poach a yolk" came to mind..... so I rinsed out one of the bowls I was using to separate, filled with cold tap water, plunked in the two eggs yolks. oven was preheating at 500'F - plunked the Pyrex bowl into the oven - ah,,,15 mins. perfectly round floating globes, slight stuck together, perhaps some surface albumin,,,, can't think of a more gentle way to get the water hot - temp&timing at your experimental discretion....


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## laurieh (Aug 3, 2008)

Reading this reminded me of my very favorite breakfast that my mom used to make when I was a kid.

She would poach 2 egg yolks (using an egg poacher) just until the yolks were starting to get thick, but not hard. I would spread the yolks on crisp dry toast and sprinkle crumbled bacon on top. Mmm....

I guess I haven't eaten that breakfast in more than 30 years, but I can remember the taste so clearly!


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## denise gardner (Jul 23, 2012)

I too prefer the yolk. With leftover yolks ,I experimented today . in a small saucepan i brought salted water to a boil. The first yolk I tried at 3 minutes was firm but still sft. after 5 minutes I removed it . About 1/3 of the yolk was still runny.So I ate it ! It left me with 4 more . The next one  broke when i tried to separate it from the other three. Yolk ran everywhere . So I just dumped them all in. They all cooked nicely over medium heat ,for seven to eight minutes,even the broken one . I wanted them to add to egg salad . I noticed that the more the inside cooked the larger the mass became. To use in the egg salad I blotted them with paper towels. Best egg salad I've ever had . These were extra large eggs If you're looking for a runny yolk you'll need to cook for 2 to 3 minutes . At 5 minutes it was so hot I had to wait for yolk to cool enough to eat .. I did not use vinegar,only salted water . I hope this helps.

.


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## ebake8 (Apr 10, 2015)

Thanks so much for the update! I too was searching for information about cooking the yolk only, and your thread was all I could find. I followed your instructions and had great success  I just eased the separated yolk into about an inch of simmering water and voila!

My incentive for doing this, since that was brought up by some others, is baby food. I am staying at home with my new baby this year and homemade baby food from scratch is one of my new favorite things to do in the kitchen. I have been doing a lot of research and the healthiest things to introduce to a baby as they delve into the world of solids is egg yolk, bone broth, liver, etc - not the typical fruits, vegetable, and grains we so often see.

This morning's puree:

simmered beef bone broth with soft egg yolk and a melted cube of previously made homemade coconut milk, banana and mango. I warmed the cube in the bone broth in the same skillet I had just sautéed garlic, rosemary, thyme and shitake mushrooms for my own breakfast. I just added that to the yolk and the little man is LOVING it!!

Thanks again for your post!

RC





  








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(I pulled off the outer skin for a smoother texture)





  








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(melting a cube of coconut milk, banana, mango puree in beef broth)





  








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thoroughly enjoyed!!


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## thistledown (May 6, 2015)

Hello All!

I literally just joined so I could leave this reply about how wonderful it was to find this thread!

I have severe iron deficiency anemia, and I have to eat four egg yolks per day.  No whites, as the egg white inhibits iron absorption.

Normally, I soft boil four eggs, take the tops off and spoon the liquidy yolks onto two pieces of toast, then throw the whites away.

My hubby, however, LOVES angel food cake and I was wondering if I could separate the whites and the yolks BEFORE cooking and make him cake with the whites rather than wasting them.

Huzzah!  This thread is EXACTLY what I was looking for!  WONDERFUL!

Many thanks, thistledown


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