While we’re not going to pretend we’re culinary wizards, the ‘perfect’ boiled egg shouldn’t take more than six minutes in our eyes.
If you want a soft egg to dip your toast soldiers in, we always assumed five minutes was ideal, while jammy eggs are the six-minute mark, and 10 minutes if you’re a hard-boiled fan.
Get ready to throw the cookbook out of the window, because according to ‘scientists’, the perfect boiled egg should be left to stew for over half an hour.
Up there with cooking beans on toast, boiling an egg should be a culinary staple that is one of the first tasks we’re taught.
The sous vide method takes even longer to make eggs (Jonathan Knowles / Getty)The sous vide method takes even longer to make eggs (Jonathan Knowles / Getty)
The sous vide method takes even longer to make eggs (Jonathan Knowles / Getty)
Still, it’s surprising how many people get boiling an egg wrong, leading to either a snotty mess or rubbery balls that could do some serious damage if thrown at someone’s head.
As for the out-there idea that eggs should be boiled for 32 minutes, Nature.com reports how material engineers in Italy apparently ‘cracked’ their way through 300 eggs in a quest to find the perfect way to prepare them in their shells.
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We’ll warn you that while this is no quick egg that you can chuck in a pan of boiling water and come back to when it’s cooked to your liking, we’re told it’s the right way to get the ‘perfect’ egg.
To get the perfect egg, you have to switch your egg eight times between a pan of boiling water and a bowl of cold water.
Experts say this alleviates the problem of having a runny yolk paired with an undercooked egg white, or a cooked white and rock-hard yolk.
Dr. Ernesto Di Maio is a senior author of the study from the University of Naples Federico II, claiming that his team managed to get the white to the ideal 85°C (185°F) and the yolk to an optimal 65°C (149°F).
Although he usually works with plastics, the Daily Mail explains how he turned his home kitchen into its very own egg laboratory where he cooked all 300 of them.
The idea is to bring the water to a boil and then add your egg for two minutes, take it out, and then add it to a bowl of cold water sitting at exactly 30°C for a further two minutes.
The ‘perfect’ egg apparently requires a lot of work (nature.com / Ernesto Di Maio)The ‘perfect’ egg apparently requires a lot of work (nature.com / Ernesto Di Maio)
The ‘perfect’ egg apparently requires a lot of work (nature.com / Ernesto Di Maio)
The perfect egg means you put it back in the boiling water for two minutes, back into the 30°C water for two minutes, and repeat the process six more times.
Hyping his own methods, Di Maio explained: “I thought the techniques we use in materials science could produce the perfect egg, and the result really is exquisite.
“I have converted 50 of my family and friends to preferring eggs made this way, and they were served up with lemon and pepper at our laboratory Christmas party.”
Addressing the obvious issue of how long it takes, Di Maio added: “It may take 32 minutes to make this type of egg, and I understand many people won’t have the time, but I personally think it is worth it for the people you love, rather than cooking them eggs in the wrong way.”
While Di Maio says his new method improves on the already popular sous vide egg (which takes an hour), it’s still not strong to sit in an egg cup and dip your soldiers in.
It might be worth checking out these seemingly mad methods if you’re planning on opening up a Michelin star restaurant, but for most of us, simply throwing it in a pan of boiling water for our usual number of minutes will do just fine.
Featured Image Credit: Laurie Ambrose / Getty
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