Search all over the world and you will find few people who can cook a poached egg properly. But there is a simple method of making perfect poached eggs. You don't use vinegar or those little round tin shapes and you can cook as many poached eggs at a time as will fill a frying pan. It is really a variation on coddling.

Fill a frying pan with boiling water, deep enough to cover an egg. While it is boiling briskly over a high gas flame, break as many eggs as you need into the water. The water will go off the boil, but keep an eye on it until it comes back to the boil. Once it is boiling again turn the heat off and let it sit. The eggs will continue to cook and you can take them out when they are cooked - about four minutes should be the maximum. You will end up with a runny yolk but a fully cooked but non-rubbery white. The yolk will be covered all over with a delicate white.

In a hotel in the north of Hokkaido Japan (not a great place for poached eggs), there was a short order cook who didn't know how to poach an egg until he was shown this method. It is now one of the few places in the world where you can get a perfect poached egg.