Spaghetti carbonara, breakfast

 

After the pasta is cooked and removed, vinegar is added to the pasta water that forces the egg albumen to pull together. Albumen does not spread in acidulated water. No need to swirl the water. The water needn't boil to cook the egg. Egg white begins cooking at 144℉ and egg yolks finish at 158℉, well below boiling. the eggs continue cooking until both white and yolk are denatured completely and then beyond, the tightening molecules squeezing out moisture, the extent of their doneness is a function of time. 

That means, left in hot water even well below boiling the eggs will continue to cook, the yolk harden, and there goes your lovely liquid egg yolk sauce. So get the poached eggs out of the hot water. If you must hold the eggs for any length of time they can be lifted into chilled water to stop the cooking, and reserved for as long as you like, then reheat the poached eggs by placing them back into hot water for only long enough to warm them, and that's it, or else they will resume cooking. In this manner you can manage a breakfast for quite a large group and serve everybody at once.

The egg yolk is lifted out of the water with a regular serving spoon, a bit larger than a soup spoon but either size will do, no need for it to be slotted. The scraggly white portion hanging off the spoon is cut using the edge of the spoon as a blade against the inside of the pot. Being so tender the white cuts easily and drops right off into the water. It is an effective way to trim excess white. That is how poached eggs are shaped so beautifully. Try it. It's fun.