Freezing Poached Eggs

Ed_D__14103

Hi ChefStep Folks:

Curious to know if anyone has thoughts on how poached eggs may hold up in the freezer.

Background: I've been tasked with creating a burger with a poached egg in the center. My plan is to follow the rough example of Dave Arnold's "Burger of the Future" recipe (seen here: http://www.eater.com/2011/5/6/6682859/the-burger-of-the-future-as-imagined-by-dave-arnold) but to utilize a pre-"poached" egg in lieu of the veal stock/ketchup "puck".

The thought was to cook a few eggs @72C for ~17 min (per the egg calculator for the texture I'm going for), cooling in ice water, then cracking into a bowl and par-freezing them on an oiled sheet pan to make them a little less fragile for when I assemble the burgers. After a quick dip in the fryer (to set), I'd then circulate the assembled burgers in ziplocks @ 54.5 C for an hour or so (which I understand is a low enough temp. to prevent further cooking of the egg once it comes up to temp.). From there, they'll hit the griddle to brown up. I suppose the question at the end of the day is whether I'm likely to encounter a substantial loss in taste or texture by par-freezing the eggs. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Chris_Young_80640

The freezing may cause the yolks to become thicker than you expect when you thaw them. So you might need to make an adjustment by cooking them at a lower temperature to allow for the freeze-thickening that tends to occur with egg yolks.