KitchenFilter

May 13, 2013 4:52 AM

Is this really an egg poacher?

While at a yard sale I saw this set out with several other kitchen items. I was told it's an egg poacher, but I'm not so sure about that. The photos were taken on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper (for scale). So what is it? If it is an egg poacher, how exactly does that work?

posted by zinon to Food & Drink (16 answers total)

Best answer: Nope! It's a masala dabba.
posted by arrmatie at 4:56 AM on May 13, 2013 [7 favorites]

Yep, that's an egg poacher, and a cute one! How it works is you put some water in the big pan. Not too much. Grease each of the little cups (to make it easier to get the eggs out) and then break an egg in each one. Put the cups in the big pan. You don't want the water to go over the tops of the little cups, but you also want the bottoms of the little cups to be kind of floating on the water. Cover the whole pan with the lid, bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer for however long you like your poached eggs cooked for (some like 'em runny, some like 'em hard). Lift out the little cups with tongs. Voila!
posted by Athanassiel at 4:57 AM on May 13, 2013

Yes. You grease up the cups, insert the egg and place the cups into the larger pan where you have water at a low boil.

My feeling is that it is one of those classic kitchen gadgets (like the broccoli steamer) that don't actually work all that well.
posted by gjc at 4:57 AM on May 13, 2013

I'm going to have to agree with arrmatie. Masala dabba.
posted by olinerd at 5:00 AM on May 13, 2013

I think it's a masala dabba too, and a Google image search seems to confirm this.

Having said that, you could conceivably poach eggs in it - if you ever have a need to poach seven eggs at once. The depth and shape of the cups would probably make it a fairly poor tool for the job though.
posted by pipeski at 5:01 AM on May 13, 2013

Actually, it's a masala dabba. Egg poacher cups are non-stick and have little handles to lift them out of the water bath, or a small plate they nestle into that achieves the same purpose.
posted by Slap*Happy at 5:02 AM on May 13, 2013

Okay, I change my answer. If I had ever seen a masala dabba before, I would have suggested it. Now I just have a new kitchen gadget to covet.
posted by Athanassiel at 5:25 AM on May 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

You know what you could do with that though?

It would be a nice way to display condiments at a barbecue.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:01 AM on May 13, 2013 [3 favorites]

Egg poacher cups are non-stick

Just an fyi, but not necessarily. My mother has an egg-poacher insert for her pots, and it's not non-stick.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:12 AM on May 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

Before seeing the Right Answer, I was going to suggest some kind of custard bath -- bet it could be used for that too, where the metal cups serve as a kind of ramekin.
posted by acm at 6:13 AM on May 13, 2013

Response by poster: I knew it wasn't an egg poacher. But I'd never heard of a masala dabba (Indian spice box) before. Now the little spoon that came with it makes sense. I didn't photograph it because I didn't think it actually belonged with the set.
posted by zinon at 6:15 AM on May 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

The cups are way too deep to be an egg poacher. Egg poachers, while similar in layout, have very shallow cups
posted by Thorzdad at 7:44 AM on May 13, 2013

Masala Dabba as everyone says. I use this for my frequently-used spices. Very convenient!
posted by vivzan at 1:37 PM on May 13, 2013

Definitely a masala dabba. But just for reference, this is what people are probably thinking of when they see your gadget and think "Oh! Egg poacher!" (And it doesn't actually poach eggs! It steams them. But it's still referred to as an egg poacher, because close enough, I guess.)
posted by rhiannonstone at 1:44 PM on May 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yeah, not an egg poacher, but rhiannonstone explains why this is a somewhat reasonable assumption (for people who don't care enough about their poached eggs grrrrrrr.)
posted by desuetude at 10:33 PM on May 13, 2013

I inherited one of these, and was told that it was for Indian chutneys or other dips. I don't have formal dinners that require chutneys or dips, so I've never used it - but I can see where if you have a larger kitchen than I do, it would be great for frequently used spices.
posted by jb at 6:15 AM on May 14, 2013