Physicists discover how to cook the perfect egg with ‘amazing taste and texture’

Physicists have discovered how to cook the perfect egg and, not only does it have “an amazing taste and texture”, it’s packed with more nutritional value than an egg boiled for three minutes.

It takes patience and two saucepans to cook the perfect egg, Italian physicists say.

The patience is required because the process to achieve the perfect boiled egg takes at least 30 minutes.

During this time, you will need to switch the egg back and forth between saucepans containing water of different temperatures to be rewarded with an egg that not only has an amazing taste and texture but has higher nutritional value.

We all know that boiling an egg does not always result in an egg cooked to our liking.

That’s because the yolk and white cook at different temperatures, so, getting an even boil is not straightforward.

For instance, a vigorous boil is just right for the white – a temperature of 85°C gives optimum consistency.

But the yolk – which only needs 65°C – can end up too hard.

Many chefs cook eggs in a water bath (sous vide) at a steady temperature of between 60°C and 70°C which does produce a better consistency to the yolk, but the risk is an undercooked white.

It’s not always easy to cook your eggs to your liking.

Now The New Scientist reports a team of physicists, led by Ernesto Di Maio at the University of Naples in Italy, have discovered the secret to an evenly boiled egg.

The process is to alternate cooking the egg every two minutes between boiling water and water at 30°C for eight cycles – 32 minutes in total.

Di Maio said people who had tried eggs cooked in this way were “amazed by the taste and the texture.”

“Yes, it takes more time than usual cooking, but I think if you love someone, you should invest your time to do something properly,” Di Maio said. “This is how to properly do an egg.”

The egg testers also reported they found the egg white to be slightly sweeter and the yolk less sweet than in eggs cooked in other ways.

Another common observation was that the egg white’s texture was similar to a soft-boiled egg, while the yolk was more like a sous vide egg.

Chefs often use the sous vide method as with poached eggs. Picture: Mike Dugdale

The periodic egg also contained a higher amount of nutrients, such as antioxidants called polyphenols, compared with soft-boiled or sous vide eggs, though Di Maio and his team don’t know why.

French chemist Hervé This – who works in molecular and physical gastronomy at AgroParisTech – said the process of cooking food using alternately hot and cold environments was not a new idea.

“It is not original, as it was proposed about one century ago for meat,” he said.

It is also important to compare the eggs cooked in this way to eggs cooked sous vide at different temperatures, as this can dramatically change the cooked egg, he said.

Originally published as Physicists discover how to cook the perfect egg with ‘amazing taste and texture’