Cooking For Engineers

[Psychgrad]

Love the experimentation. As a researcher, I really appreciate the rigorous methods. I've always put a cold egg into water and brought the water to a boil. It's what I've always done, but is a pretty poor method, since I am not patient enough to sit by the pot to start timing once the water has come to a boil. As a result, I usually end up with undercooked soft-boiled eggs. I am going to switch up my approach. I'm not sure why I didn't just try a different method to begin with. I guess old habits die hard.

[kayenne]

just a question...

why would you want the soft-boiled eggs to be peelable whole? seems like a whole lot of work, unless you do it sous vide. to be peelable, the white would be too firm to be really tasty. loses the gooey factor. I usually just spoon them out into a bowl. if i wanted whole soft eggs, i would choose to poach them.

no offense meant.

[Dilbert]

kayenne -

probably little offense sensed - but actually I think the "purpose" of the whole effort was to define/identify what temperature(s) produce what effect(s).

I agree with the basic statement:
soft boiled egg? what's with the "peel" thing?
....I whack off the top and put 'em on toast....

there is however a place in fin food fixins' where a veddy soft boiled gooey egg get puts over something even more tasty...
so past the "it's running all over the place" the temp guidance would be beneficial.

[kayenne]

oh well, i suppose it would be a pretty presentation in a hotel if you wanted soft boiled eggs on toast.

i just had two soft boiled eggs for breakfast. a drizzle of soy sauce, singapore hawker style, and 2 slices of toast with strawberry jam. Mmmm...

[Don in Vancouver]

Well, here's a new method my wife from Belgium brings with her which works perfect everytime.

Start with cold water fully coveringand cold eggs together in a covered pot. Bring them to a rapid boil and set them off the burner for 4 minutes 30 seconds (sea level). Rinse in cold water to reduce temperature and drain. Eggs do not crack and are perfect.

[Guest]

[Matt Hall]

Great article though - I love your obsessive rigorousness - reminds me of Heston Blumenthal
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PmrgCc7Fswk

[CarolinadeWitte]

To anonymous: I believe the egg weights referred to the weight of a dozen eggs. (I could be wrong, but that's what made sense to me, anyway.)

[msjayhawk]

The weight of the eggs is per dozen.

Will all of the above work with brown eggs?

:-)

[GaryProtein]

[bentod]

I suppose everyone knows, but I noticed that sometimes eggs peel well and sometimes the skin is dry between the shell and the egg.

Once my eggs had cooked the appropriate length of time, I took the pot of boiling water and sat it in the sink. Then I ran cold water into the hot water until it stopped steaming. Then I drained the water and filled the pot with cold water. These eggs slid out of their shells.

Is there an better method?

[Dilbert]

doing the perfect hard cooked egg - easy to peel, no green, etc - is a very long and twisted debate.

start in cold water
start in boiling water
when water boils turn off and allow to sit for x minutes
boil for x minutes
boil x minutes then cool for y minutes

everybody has a trick; nothing is easy <g>

but I'm with you - my method is to plunge them in ice water - real ice cubes floating around....

[Guest]

I LOVE (yes, love in all caps) your experiment and write up. It renews my slightly battered faith in humanity's critical thinking abilities!

[Monique]

Boil 4 cups of water, pierce refrigerated egg w/egg piercer (or pin/needle) at narrow end of egg. Use ladel or large spoon to carefully place egg into boiling water and boil for 4 exact minutes. Remove egg and place in cold water for 1 minute to stop the egg from cooking further. Remove from cold water and cut (with any steak or sharp knife) only 1/4 of shell at 1 end. Sprinkle w/dash of salt and/or pepper and use teaspoon to eat!

[kiwi farmer]

pin should pierce air cell at rounded end of egg not pointy end...the air sac is the most rapidly expanding part of the heating egg so is the best place to decompress and prevent cracking from expansion