Poached Eggs on Smoked Brisket
painting, got hungry, smoked brisket w poached eggs, celery
Made at a painting desk because somebody got hungry. No bread, no muffin, no hollandaise. A slab of brisket is the plate.
Poaching an egg is easy once you know the one thing nobody tells you: strain the egg first. Tip it into a fine sieve and the loose watery part of the white runs straight through, and what is left holds together in a neat oval instead of exploding into white threads. Vinegar and whirlpools are both trying to solve a problem that the sieve already solved.
Celery raw on the side. Cold, wet, loud — against smoked beef and runny yolk it is the only thing on the plate with a sharp edge.
- Feeds
- 1
- Hands-on
- 15 minutes
- Eggs
- 3 minutes, strained
- Needs
- Smoked brisket
What you need
The plate
- 2 thick slices smoked brisket, with the bark on
- 2 very fresh eggs
- 1/2 cup sharp cheddar, grated
- Coarse cracked black pepper
- Smoked paprika
- 3 celery stalks, cut into batons
How it goes
1 — Warm the brisket under cheese first
Slices in an ovenproof pan, cheese over them, three minutes under a broiler until the cheese melts and the bark heats through. The cheese is the glue that keeps the eggs from sliding off.
2 — Strain each egg through a sieve
Cracked into a fine sieve over a bowl and swirled gently. The thin watery white runs out and what stays behind is the tight white that will hold its shape. Thirty seconds per egg and it changes everything.
3 — Water at a bare tremble, not a boil
Deep pan, water just moving, no bubbles breaking the surface. A rolling boil tears a poached egg apart no matter how well you strained it.
4 — Slide them in from a cup, three minutes
Tipped in gently from a small cup held at the surface. Three minutes for a set white and a completely liquid yolk.
pro tip — No vinegar and no whirlpool. Both of those are workarounds for not straining, and vinegar makes the whites taste of it.
5 — Lift them onto a towel for a few seconds
Slotted spoon onto a folded paper towel so the water drains off. Water on the plate makes the bark soggy, and the bark is the point.
6 — Eggs onto the cheese, pepper and paprika over
Set on top, then a heavy grind of pepper and a dusting of smoked paprika across both. Celery batons laid beside them raw.
7 — Break a yolk before you photograph it
I did. It is the right call — the yolk runs down into the bark and that is where the dish actually happens.
Painting, got hungry. The best meals come out of that sentence. LFG.