About two years ago, here, I gave directions as how to poach the perfect egg
and at that stage I thought there could be very little to add to those directions.

As I was poaching this morning’s egg I realised that there is a little refinement to my technique which has occurred since daughter Caitriona and son-in-law Aonghus came back from Tokyo last year.
They brought back a tiny Japanese jug, beautiful simple and white.
It has no handle and it just exactly fits an egg.

Now my technique for poaching an egg is not the swirl technique, which involves whipping the water into a vortex and then slipping the egg into the centre, thereby, in theory, utilizing the laws of centrifugal force, and so archiving a perfectly cylindrical orb.
I have tried to do this I promise and failed miserably.
Anyway even if you do achieve perfection this way how in the name of God do you manage the second egg without making shite out of the first one?

No my poaching method is what I call the insinuation method.
I bring the water to the boil, vinegar it lightly (optional), then turn it down to the merest shudder, now insinuate the egg into the water, that is slip it in, in one gentle movement, unobtrusively , making the least possible disturbance of the water, and then poach until it is cooked to your desires, somewhere between one minute and two for me and my preference for a barely set white and a soft yolk.

As I already said before the only essential was a free range egg which should be as fresh as the hen will allow.
I have now discovered that the little Japanese Egg Jug makes the insinuation even easier and has become an essential element in my old mans habit of my morning egg.
I am quite sure that any wee milk jug would do the same service.