I Was Never Able to Nail This Tricky Cooking Technique Until This Clever Tool Made It So Easy to Master

A few years ago, I started on a journey to become proficient at cooking and baking. It’s a lifelong pursuit that I’ve been enjoying immensely, challenging myself to try new recipes with everything from simple pastas and hearty soups to more involved dishes like fall-off-the-bone short ribs and homemade biscuits. But there’s one thing that after several rounds of trial and error, I simply could not nail it down: Poached eggs. 

I tried making the little devils periodically over the years, thinking, “how hard is it to make eggs?” But for some reason, I couldn’t maintain the delicate balance of the swirling hot vinegar water it takes to create a pillowy egg with a yolk that’ll break just by looking at it. Rather, I always ended up with stringy egg white soup that looks as though you would find it in a mad scientist’s lab rather than on a breakfast plate. I had since sworn off the cooking technique, until a cookbook in which I am challenging myself to make every recipe required a poached egg as its main dish. So I called on a beloved brand for assistance. 

Our Place is a favorite cookware brand of mine—I use its Always Pan and Mini Perfect Pot almost daily. So when the time came to make this herby dish from the cookbook, I utilized the clever Egg Poacher add-on I received as a sample from the brand; and I was shocked by the results.

To buy: $45; fromourplace.com.

The Our Place egg poacher fits snugly into the Always Pan and features a sturdy nylon platter that houses four perforated silicone cups. To use, I simply boiled about 7 cups of water in the Always Pan, stirred in a few tablespoons of white vinegar, turned off the heat, added the egg poacher tray, gently poured an egg into each cup, and let it rest for three to five minutes, until the egg whites started to hold their shape. The result? Perfectly poached eggs. Note: Just be sure to use an oven mitt or towel to remove the egg cups as they get hot from the steam. 

The beauty of this tool is that the cups hold the egg whites in place, preventing the gross, stringy separation that always came from my previous attempts. The whole system is so lightweight and easy to use—plus, every component is dishwasher safe. I’m looking forward to many future brunches serving eggs Benedict, egg-topped rice bowls, and herb-garlic egg-topped yogurt (pictured above). Hint: It’s a great tool for upcoming Mother’s Day celebrations, too. 

The egg poacher is only compatible with the brand’s Always Pan, so if your nonstick skillet needs an upgrade, our editors would strongly recommend this genius multitasker that just might replace several tools in your kitchen. It’s also not the easiest to store as the cups don’t stack or collapse, but I’ve found it can nest with other cookware or rest with an organized system of cutting boards or bakeware. 

Overall, if you’re looking for a way to upgrade your favorite meal of the day or simply make poached eggs a hassle-free task, then head to Our Place and get the kitchen tool I can’t get enough of.