1 00:00:00,352 --> 00:00:01,893 PROFESSOR: We all know that breakfast 2 00:00:01,893 --> 00:00:04,090 is the most important meal of the day. 3 00:00:04,090 --> 00:00:06,020 And our staple for breakfast is the egg. 4 00:00:08,810 --> 00:00:12,190 There's omlettes, there's scrambled, there's hard boiled, 5 00:00:12,190 --> 00:00:15,310 but there's one type of egg that I 6 00:00:15,310 --> 00:00:18,600 don't know anyone that knows how to make it, and what is that? 7 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:20,570 That's the poached egg. 8 00:00:20,570 --> 00:00:22,100 Oh, making a poached egg is easy, 9 00:00:22,100 --> 00:00:23,558 you know, I'll just go on to Google 10 00:00:23,558 --> 00:00:26,040 and see how to make a poached egg, it's not a big deal. 11 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:27,065 But it's not that easy. 12 00:00:27,065 --> 00:00:28,740 And there's actually a lot of science 13 00:00:28,740 --> 00:00:30,670 that goes into poached eggs. 14 00:00:30,670 --> 00:00:34,100 The basic principle behind poaching eggs involves protein. 15 00:00:34,100 --> 00:00:36,750 Protein is made up of amino acids. 16 00:00:36,750 --> 00:00:38,610 When those amino acids are subject to heat, 17 00:00:38,610 --> 00:00:42,270 they lose their form and they solidify. 18 00:00:42,270 --> 00:00:46,080 This is commonly what you see in over easy or over hard eggs. 19 00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:49,070 That white crust that forms on the yolk, that's 20 00:00:49,070 --> 00:00:52,800 called ovalbumin, or ovalbumin, and that's 21 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:56,320 the main protein that is in the egg. 22 00:00:56,320 --> 00:00:59,240 Now, what happens when you poach an egg is 23 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,930 you have to have this process, this denaturing 24 00:01:01,930 --> 00:01:04,280 occur very rapidly or else the egg 25 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:06,090 will dissipate into the water and you 26 00:01:06,090 --> 00:01:08,100 won't get a good poached egg. 27 00:01:08,100 --> 00:01:11,160 Now, to do that you have to have a very high temperature. 28 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,280 And it is known that ovalbumin denatures 29 00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:16,140 at a very high acidity. 30 00:01:16,140 --> 00:01:20,970 So what you do is you'd have to add some sort of acid 31 00:01:20,970 --> 00:01:23,580 to the water that you're boiling the egg in. 32 00:01:23,580 --> 00:01:25,070 So that can be either lemon juice 33 00:01:25,070 --> 00:01:28,030 or it could be vinegar, anything that 34 00:01:28,030 --> 00:01:31,030 will lower the acidity of the water, which is typically 35 00:01:31,030 --> 00:01:32,350 around 7.0. 36 00:01:32,350 --> 00:01:36,160 That's what's going to give you the best poached egg.