Silicone Egg Poachers Adds Convenience To Cooking
Overview
Silicone egg poachers represent the latest entry into a long and honored kitchen cooking appliance or utensil line. Designed for use primarily in the microwave, these highly versatile egg poachers are the epitome of convenience, speed, and consistency.
Single or Multiple Cup Designs
While most units provide up to six cups, silicone egg poachers are not only versatile numerically but also in actual cup design.
The standard microwave design presents a round, self-standing tray with usually four egg cups and a lid. The stand or base braces the egg tray for a free-standing unit, and the fitted lid preserves moisture and improves cooking times.
Individual silicone egg poachers, designed for single egg cooking, come in a variety of shapes, colors, and uses. Decorative and highly imaginative cups come in many colors and shapes including:
- Broken Egg Shells: Half shells hold the egg and float the whites and yolk in liquid for poaching.
- Floater Poach Pods: Designed for use with a separate pan of water on the stove, these flexible silicone cups suspend the egg in water while poaching. Because the units are not connected to a base, retrieving the non-stick floater pods requires a separate utensil and careful use.
Advantages
Silicone egg poachers present several advantages for the schedule-minded cook. A few include:
- Time Savings: Because these units are designed for use in the microwave, cooking time is vastly reduced.
- Effort: Most silicone poachers have non-stick surfaces which not only saves the shape and texture separation but also makes cleaning a breeze.
- Dishwasher Safe: Further reducing clean up times, these units are safe for washing in a machine. Just load in the top rack and later put away.
- Surfaces Damage: Since most silicone units cool more quickly than metal ones, the risk of inadvertent damage to counter tops is reduced. Scorching and burning from metals is all but a thing of the past.
Disadvantages
While the number of disadvantages are few, some do exist.
- Accountability: While single egg units make smaller servings convenient, they can easily be lost or misplaced.
- Limited Servings: Most single egg cups are sold in only in pairs. While the dual units enable more than one egg to be poached at once, they make cooking for larger gatherings a difficult process.
- Additional Elements: Unless a multiple-cup silicone unit is used for only a serving or two, a silicone egg poacher still needs a pan, a heat source, water, and a retrieval tool needed to fish out the poacher cup.
Additional Kitchen Uses
When not used specifically for poaching eggs, silicone egg poachers can adapt to many handy functions, including:
- Jello Molds: Individual servings are easy to make, refrigerate, and serve using silicone poaching cups.
- Cooking Preparation: As temporary holders for spices and condiments for other dishes, counter space is reserved, and adding ingredients for sauces, mixes, and batters is a snap. Pre-measured amounts for dry ingredients can be added at once, and baking or cooking times and hassles become almost nil.
- Steamed Vegetables: Single servings of luscious steamed vegetables haven’t been more easily cooked before. Simply add the vegetables to a poaching cup, cover, and microwave. All the vitamins and other nutrients are locked into delicious servings and are ready in only a few moments.
- Timbales: Previously a delicate process, making perfect timbales in a silicone egg cup enables even novice cooks to escalate skills and confidence.
Summary
From one cup units to a dozen cup unit, silicone egg poachers bring convenience, nutrition, and cooking ease into any kitchen. Cooked in a microwave in seconds or on a stove top for traditionalists, poached eggs are a highly nutritious and attractive meal with pasta, sandwiches, vegetables or by themselves. No more a forte of only restaurants, poached eggs can be enjoyed by everyone any day of the week.
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