Settling Up the Dispute over Poached Egg's Definition
As far as I understand it, poaching is poaching (cooking in simmering liquid)...whether it is an egg or a portion of fish.  It is the cooking process. I don't think this is debatable.
While acid in the poaching liquid helps to denature the proteins and allow the white to more readily stay together, there are other ways to achieve this, by using the &quot;vortex method&quot;, for example.  No one could logically argue that this egg is not poached...and no one uses the phrase &quot;shell-less boiled egg&quot;....right?