Poached eggs are a delightful indulgence. The joy of breaking into a perfectly poached egg and watching the smooth yolk spill onto a thick slice of toast is unparalleled.

However, they can be quite tricky to master compared to their fried or boiled counterparts. As a result, many of us only indulge in them when dining out for brunch at a café or restaurant (for a great way to make your fried eggs tastier, try this)

But with this technique, you can become as proficient at poaching eggs as any professional chef. Once you've given it a go, if you're anything like me, you'll abandon those cumbersome methods like creating a whirlpool in the water before dropping your egg in. There's also no need to fret about adding vinegar to the water, as some recipes suggest.

The one catch with this method is that it demands your undivided attention over the pan, leaving little room for multitasking while your egg cooks.

So, without further delay, here's the foolproof method for poaching an egg that you've been longing for.

To poach an egg using a ladle, simply follow these straightforward steps:

1. Bring a saucepan of water to a simmer.

2. Spray the ladle with non-stick cooking spray or brush it with oil. This step is crucial — the oil prevents the egg from sticking to the ladle and if you don't do it you will just have a ladle full of burned egg that will take you ages to scrub off (and you'll have nothing edible left)

3. Crack the egg into the ladle.

4. Gently lower the ladle into the simmering water.

5. Allow water to gently seep into the ladle in small amounts, but don't let it rush in — if it rushes in it will break up the yolk and cause the pan to become an uncontrollable, bubbly mess

6. Cook the egg for about three minutes, or until the egg white is opaque and the yolk is still a little jiggly.

7. Remove the ladle from the water and gently tease out the egg. You should have a beautifully-shaped and rounded egg.

8. Season with salt and enjoy.

But wait! There's another way of poaching an egg that doesn't even require a pan. And it works exactly as sold. I ended up with a perfectly round poached egg, with none of those stringy bits left either hanging from a sorry-looking egg or floating around in some horribly cloudy pan water. 

1. Crack your egg into a glass — you can also use a mug here. In fact, I was a bit worried that a glass would crack in the microwave so please use your judgement.

2. Pour some water into the glass — I used around the same volume of water as there was egg, with maybe an extra drop added too. 

3. Put the glass, mug or whatever microwave-safe vessel you are using in the microwave, and microwave on high for one minute. 

4. Using oven gloves or a towel to protect your hands from the heat remove your vessel from the microwave and then remove the egg from the water. It should be perfectly smooth and with a moist middle. But microwave strengths vary — so you may need to experiment before you find the right time for your perfect poached egg. 

For other ways to cook the perfect eggs, you can try this air fryer poached egg method and this method to get "fluffier and tastier" scrambled eggs.