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Poached Eggs VII - Mahalo - The Finishing Touches

Blog: Norfolk Single Dad
Posted by: Eddie2sox Saturday 22nd December 2007, 9:36am

Mahalo is a website that claims to be “The world’s first human-powered search engine”, whatever THAT means…..

To be honest, it‘s not such a bad little site. Not sure whether “human-powered” means there are a team of YTS trainees pedalling stationary cycles all day to power the servers, but it’s worth a gleg. The poached egg recipe turned out to be from the top drawer.

Mahalo also provides video clips for some of its search results, and the poached eggs question led to me watching America’s own version of Delia Smith. By that I mean methodical, preachy, and repeatedly stating the obvious; “For poached eggs you will need eggs - these are provided by chickens and can bought at shops that sell eggs, and other egg-related products. Such as Tesco”. So if you choose to view the video, be prepared to be patronised! There’s also an option for putting your poached eggs into iced water, and storing them for 24 hours - who would want to do that though, and why?

You can find this recipe here : http://www.mahalo.com/How_to_Poach_an_Egg

Ease & Effort:

4.5 - A fairly traditional method, but with a little more time and care taken to make sure the finished product looks appealing as well as tasting fablicious. Fairly specific in the right places too, starting with the amount of water needed - “enough to fully immerse an egg” - which is a detail mostly not included by other recipes. This used the egg in a cup before the pan technique, to reduce the risk of the yolk breaking on contact with the water. A sensible amount of vinegar (15 ml in a total amount of 1 litre of water), and detailed timings (I used the mid-point of the range given) added to the user-friendly nature of Mahalo’s poached egg method.

Presentation:

4 - Another bonus in this version was the attention to detail. From gently stirring to keep the egg together, to trimming any stray strings of white off, to adding salt and pepper if you want to, this egg was always going to look the part. Let’s face it, a little trimming makes many things more appealing to put in your mouth.

Yolk:

2 - A very minor criticism - the yolk was slightly, ever so slightly, overdone at the mid-point of Mahalo‘s timing range. 15 seconds less would maybe be perfect. One part of the yolk, that wasn’t protected by white, had become a little overdone.

White:

2 - Maybe the best white so far. Firm, but not hard, lovely jubbly.

Scores On The Doors

Mahalo - 12.5

Vash The Stampede - 12.0

Old Bob - 11.5

Rick Stein - 10.5

Mrs Beeton - 9.0

Ainsley Harriott - 6.5

James Martin - 6.0

Running Order:

8 - Poached Egg Machine - may be delayed, Old Bob’s not passed on the machine yet! So we may see Delia et al soon.

9 - Delia Smith

10 - Mr Breakfast

11 - Wally Webb

12 - Australian Egg Board

13 - Woolpack Wally

Send Me Your Comments!

New this time - YOUR chance to participate in the world’s best blog-based cooking/tasting eggy competition. The Welsh Rarebit thread prompted loads of comments and emails, and I wish I’d shared some of them with you. So. Email me at trix68@hotmail.co.uk or leave a comment on the blog.

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