THE other day there was a stand off in the kitchen.

I was attempting to make a poached egg and appeared to have divided the opinions of my mum and boyfriend on how best to approach it.

I hadn’t made one in quite a long time (usually choosing scrambled eggs instead) and was not quite sure where to start.

“Aren’t you supposed to put a little bit of vinegar into a pan of boiling water and whisk it into a whirlpool before dropping the egg in?,” my boyfriend chipped in.

My mum looked slightly amused at this method and proceeded to tell me that it wasn’t necessary and all you needed to do was simmer a shallow amount of water and then drop the egg straight in.

My dad couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about and insisted that it would be much easier to just cheat and use an egg-poaching cup.

Since this lively discussion I’ve investigated all manner of ways to poach an egg, including wrapping an egg in cling film to achieve the perfect shape and lowering into a pan of water.

So, I’m after your techniques for achieving the perfect poached egg. How do you do yours?

In case you were wondering, I went with my mum’s words of wisdom in the end.