The Perfectly Boiled Egg

[zapatos]

Finally we have the recipe for the perfectly boiled egg. I've been doing it wrong all my life.

Quote

Egg cooks are challenged by the two-phase structure: albumen and yolk require two cooking temperatures. Separation or a compromise temperature to the detriment of food safety or taste preference are the options. In the present article, we find that it is possible to cook albumen and yolk at two temperatures without separation by using periodic boundary conditions in the energy transport problem.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w

[exchemist]

5 hours ago, zapatos said:

Finally we have the recipe for the perfectly boiled egg. I've been doing it wrong all my life.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w

Yeah I saw this in the Guardian and thought what a load of cock it was.😁 The Nature article at least shows some interesting science behind it. 

Every cook knows  the problem is that albumen sets at a higher temperature than yolk, so the aim is to get the heat pulse from boiling water through to set just the albumen, and take the egg out before it sets the yolk. The researchers' procedure, if taken at face value, is of course ridiculous. The value of the research is presumably in the investigation of the various mechanisms at play.

I keep eggs in my fridge and find that plunging them into boiling water for 5 mins 30secs seems to be optimal, for the large sized eggs I cook. One needs to pierce the shell at the top, where the air sac is, beforehand, to avoid the shell cracking. There are proprietary pin devices for that. I imagine that, with eggs stored at room temperature, a shorter time would be needed to set the albumen. It might also make the yolk more liable to start setting  faster, once the heat penetrated. But I don't eat many soft-boiled eggs so it is not something I have explored.   

 

[iNow]

Put eggs in saucepan. Cover barely with water. Bring to boil over high heat. Shutoff heat and cover with lid. Set timer for 10 minutes. Remove eggs from hot water and place immediately into ice bath once timer alerts. Perfect. 

[geordief]

2 hours ago, exchemist said:

Yeah I saw this in the Guardian and thought what a load of cock it was.😁 The Nature article at least shows some interesting science behind it. 

Every cook knows  the problem is that albumen sets at a higher temperature than yolk, so the aim is to get the heat pulse from boiling water through to set just the albumen, and take the egg out before it sets the yolk. The researchers' procedure, if taken at face value, is of course ridiculous. The value of the research is presumably in the investigation of the various mechanisms at play.

I keep eggs in my fridge and find that plunging them into boiling water for 5 mins 30secs seems to be optimal, for the large sized eggs I cook. One needs to pierce the shell at the top, where the air sac is, beforehand, to avoid the shell cracking. There are proprietary pin devices for that. I imagine that, with eggs stored at room temperature, a shorter time would be needed to set the albumen. It might also make the yolk more liable to start setting  faster, once the heat penetrated. But I don't eat many soft-boiled eggs so it is not something I have explored.   

 

Can there be a problem with over  cooking the white so that it is tough?

I have always only paid attention to the yolk and am fairly  expert at getting that right(some people like it hard -I like it half and half) but I have vaguely noticed that a "just nicely" set white  would be preferable to a  tough one but have never bothered  trying to facilitate that.

And juggling the two is something I doubt I could possibly attempt.

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, geordief said:

Can there be a problem with over  cooking the white so that it is tough?

I have always only paid attention to the yolk and am fairly  expert at getting that right(some people like it hard -I like it half and half) but I have vaguely noticed that a "just nicely" set white  would be preferable to a  tough one but have never bothered  trying to facilitate that.

And juggling the two is something I doubt I could possibly attempt.

Well it’s more rubbery with hard boiled eggs, certainly. But not off-puttingly so. One thing to watch with hard boiled eggs is not to cook them so long that the sulphur compounds form a grey ring around the yolk. It’s only cosmetic but worth avoiding. 

[TheVat]

I envy all ye who seem to like eggs.  I don't, unless it's hidden e.g. one added to my cornbread or pancake batter.  Apparently I'm in distinguished company - Sir Alfred Hitchcock also loathed eggs.  

[Endy0816]

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

I envy all ye who seem to like eggs.  I don't, unless it's hidden e.g. one added to my cornbread or pancake batter.  Apparently I'm in distinguished company - Sir Alfred Hitchcock also loathed eggs.  

I think he just had a thing against birds.

[dedo]

Saw a recipe on line that emphasized putting the eggs in already boiling water is key to ez peeling.

Found this works although still add baking soda to the water that may not be needed.

Found that gently lowering eggs into water with a spoon keeps them from cracking instead of just dropping the egg.

Cool the eggs with tap water when they reach your desired level of "doneness", unless you want to eat a couple hot, right after cooking.

Since adopting this method, eggs peel fine.

[exchemist]

42 minutes ago, Endy0816 said:

I think he just had a thing against birds.

Ah, now this and the previous post have triggered (sorry!) one of my Michael Caine "Not many people know that" trivia.

A Mr. Alfred Bird, a c.19th English chemist, had a wife who had a thing against eggs, being allergic to them. He developed an egg-free custard substitute for her and went into business manufacturing it. It was a great success, to the extent that I, like  generations of British children before me, was brought up eating "Bird's Custard", a pinkish powder that when mixed with hot milk forms a sort of inoffensive yellow gloop that can be poured onto hot puddings etc. Bird's Custard powder has been at the back of kitchen cupboards all over the country for over a hundred years.

The wife was also allergic to yeast, so he invented baking powder, as a raising agent for bread. It is of course also used for cakes, the previous, traditional method of the time having been to use whipped egg whites - which of course his wife could not eat. This gave rise to the famous "Victoria Sponge" so named because the Queen was said to like cakes made on this principle (1:1:1:1 butter:sugar:eggs:flour - with baking powder as raising agent), which is what we all make today.

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by exchemist