Poached Eggs

Fill a wide, deep pan with the 2 litres of water and bring it to the boil.

Crack each egg into a small cup, one at a time, so a shell fragment or a broken yolk can be dealt with before it reaches the pan.

Set a fine sieve over a bowl and tip one egg into it.

Let the loose watery white run through for 10-15 seconds, until only the thick white clinging to the yolk is left in the mesh.

Slide the sieved egg back into its cup and do the same with the rest.

Do not skip the sieve on eggs more than a few days old. That thin outer white is the part that shreds into rags in the water, and taking it out is the single thing that makes a poached egg compact.

Turn the heat down until the water is barely moving, around 80-85C/175-185F: steam coming off it, a thin stream of bubbles at the base, nothing breaking the surface hard.

Hold it there. A pan left at a rolling boil batters the egg apart before the white has set, and neither vinegar nor stirring rescues it.

Stir in the vinegar.

Be clear about what the vinegar does, since it is argued about more than it deserves. Acid makes egg white set a little faster, so it firms the outside of the egg slightly. It does nothing for an egg that was already old and loose, and a tablespoon in two litres is about the most you can add before it starts to taste of it and toughen the surface.

Skip the whirlpool unless you are poaching a single egg. Stirring the water into a vortex does wrap the white around the yolk, but the second egg destroys the spin, and it is no substitute for the sieve.

Lower the lip of a cup to the surface of the water and let the egg roll out, rather than dropping it in from a height.

Add the others the same way, spacing them around the pan and remembering the order they went in.

Poach for 3 minutes for a fully liquid yolk, or 4 minutes for one that is thick but still flows.

Toast the bread and butter it while the eggs cook.

Lift each egg out with a slotted spoon in the order it went in.

Press the white with a fingertip: it should feel set and slippery all over, with the yolk shifting underneath like a soft bag.

Rest the loaded spoon on a folded tea towel for a few seconds before it goes anywhere near the plate. Water carried across on the underside of an egg soaks the toast to paste within seconds.

Trim any straggling white away with a knife.

Set two eggs on each slice of buttered toast.

Finish with the ground peppercorns and a pinch of flaky salt.

Serve straight away, since a poached egg goes on setting in its own heat.

Poach them ahead if you are feeding a crowd: cook them 30 seconds short, lift them into a bowl of cold water, refrigerate for up to a day, and reheat for 60 seconds in hot water that is nowhere near boiling.