How to poach an egg four different ways - and all the tools you need to do it

Poching an egg in the microwave is the easiest, cheapest way, though note that the whites tend to be less delicate, and sometimes some of the yolk cooks depending on where it was resting in the whites.

All you need to poach an egg in the microwave is a set of poaching cups like these ones from COZILIFE.

And all you need to do is ...

1. Pour about a quarter cup of water into your egg-poaching cup.
2. Gently crack an egg into the cup, then pierce the yolk with a toothpick (to prevent explosions).
3. Cover the egg with another tablespoon of water.
4. Microwave at full power for one minute.

And that should be that. If your egg is too runny, next time try 1:10. Too hard, try 00:55. And so on. If you demand perfectly poached eggs, four, five, or even six at a time, then you need to get some more serious hardware.

Egg poachers are stovetop cooking tools that feature multiple individual cups for eggs and a base in which water can simmer, causing the eggs to cook through trapped steam.

These handy egg poachers remove most of the chance of messing things up, and they're pretty cheap, really. I recommend you check out the poachers from Excelsteel and Eggsentials.

And here's how you do it:

1. Pour a little less than an inch of water into the pan and bring it up to a steady simmer.
2. Crack an egg into each poaching cup.
3. Put the tray with the poaching cups into the pan, then put on the lid.
4. Wait five minutes (tweak as preferred with experience) then take the pan of egg cups out and serve those poached eggs!

Yes, it can be done. With Cuisinart's Egg Central Egg Cooker or a similar device, you can poach an egg without a stove or a microwave.

This egg-shaped egg cooker requires only a standard wall outlet to work, so you college kids missing out on eggs in your dorm room or the office worker looking to make eggs in the cubicle? You're in luck. This thing can soft or hard boil eggs, and it can poach them, too.

Here's how to use it:

1. Using the provided measuring cup, pour in the specified amount of water and heat up the cooker.
2. Lightly coat the poached egg insert with cooking spray, then gently crack eggs into the cups.
3. Put the insert into the cooker, put on the top, and wait about six minutes (again, alter to preference with experience).

And there you have it, eggs in a plug-in cooker, a stovetop poacher, the microwave, or as in the pan classics. Now it's time to host that brunch!