I have been having a poached egg for breakfast now for the last 4 or 5 years.
As I already explained I wasn’t ever a great breakfast person when I was growing up but now it is one of my favourite moments of the day.

It does rather depend on the egg though.
As long as I have been poaching eggs for breakfast I have been using free range ones, and very much better than non-free-range they are.
But I do come from a background in which a very high standard for eggs was instituted;

We kept hens.

I presume that puts me in the same category as at least 50% of the country who can boast to my years.
God knows we didn’t realise what a privileged portion of the population we were.
I didn’t truly realise that I was now deprived, and had been for some time until I started to buy free range, organic and very fresh eggs in Waterford market during the last year.
The very first one I dropped into the water to poach remained, to my astonished eyes, oval.
I could actually see where the white ended and the water began before the white started to go opaque.
The yolk remained in the centre of the white and the white maintained, almost, its shape during the cooking.

The taste…. Well Proust had his Madeline, I had my poached egg.
I was back in the family kitchen in Cork, and I could see the blue tiles on the kitchen floor.

So rule number one of the hunt for the perfect poached egg is;
First catch your Egg.

Next rule do put some vinegar in the water.
This helps all egg whites from disporting themselves gaily throughout the pot.
The pot ( or pan)is the next point.
If you are cooking one egg use a small shallow pan.
If you are cooking two or (at a pinch) three or (at a very hard pinch) four, use a large frying pan.
If you are cooking any more cook them in batches, leave the guests wait for them.

Fill the pan with about two inches of water only, add 1 Tablespoon of vinegar (I have found that cheap white malt is just as good as and considerably cheaper than white wine or cider vinegar and I buy some specifically for this purpose)
Do not add any salt.

Now bring the pan to a rolling boil.
Ignore those people who tell you to bring it to a mere susurration.
How you are going to tell this if you haven’t previously reached boiling point?
You risk putting the egg into barely warm water where even the freshest whites will have blended with the water by the time it boils, leaving you with a sad obscene and bald yolk and a large pan of frothy milk.
In this, you may gather, I speak from experience.
So bring the water to the boil, then reduce to a gentle but visible simmer.
Break the egg into a saucer, and then insinuate (no other word will quite suffice for the gentleness of this action) the egg into the simmering water.

The amount of time you leave it in there depends to some extent on the size of the egg but much more on personal preference.
I take mine out one minute after the water resumes a visible simmer, maybe just an extra ½ minute if the egg is a large one.
I like my poached egg with the white just set and the yolk liquid, dark yellow but hot.
One more action before you take it out of the water.
Put your slotted spoon into the water and gently flip over the egg, and lift it out upside down.
Now as you lift the egg out of the water all the water trapped in the folds and interstices of its top will flow happily pack into the pan where they should be and not onto your toast making it like a disagreeable piece of disintegrating porridge.
I presume that at this moment you will have a slice of hot, thick and crisp toast waiting for its egg, an essential, the only permitted alternative being a likewise crisp but soft in the middle potato cake.
Have ready a black pepper grinder which grinds coarsely and some Maldon Sea Salt.
Anoint the egg with both and enjoy it.