This Is The Perfect Way To Boil An Egg, According To Science, And It Takes 32 Minutes
Boiling an egg seems like it should be one of the easiest cooking tasks there is, but in truth, it’s quite tricky because the egg yolk and the egg white cook at two different temperatures.
When the yolk is perfectly cooked, the white just doesn’t completely solidify. On the other hand, if the egg white is perfectly cooked, the yolk is overdone.
Finding the right balance feels like a science experiment—and it actually is. Researchers claim to have discovered the perfect way to boil an egg.
According to Ernesto Di Maio, a co-author of the study and a materials engineer at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, the key ingredients (besides eggs) include a pot of boiling water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, a bowl of water at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and a steamer basket.
This approach will take a total of 32 minutes to complete.
The United States Department of Agriculture advises hard-boiled eggs to be cooked in hot, boiling water. They should be left to sit for 12 to 18 minutes, depending on their size.
The steamer basket of eggs must be dunked into the boiling water for two minutes, then into the lukewarm water for two minutes.
The eggs should go back and forth between the boiling and lukewarm water eight times before running them under cold water and peeling off the shells.
The method cooks the egg white and yolk to perfection. The average temperature of the two waters is 150 degrees Fahrenheit, which is best for the yolk.
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Meanwhile, the whites can cook in the boiling water. The process is slower, but it is much more effective. The researchers called the process periodic cooking.
“We wrote a proper mathematical model,” said Emilia Di Lorenzo, the lead author of the study and a chemical engineer at the University of Naples Federico II.
“And then, we took the equation that we wrote and developed a computational fluid dynamics program. ‘What if we cook them at 100 degrees Celsius? What happens?’ And so on.”
They used computer models to simulate various scenarios and tried out the technique in the kitchen. The researchers also submitted their periodically cooked eggs to eight sensory experts, who analyzed the color, consistency, and chemical and nutritional properties of the eggs.
Ultimately, the team concluded that they found the optimal cooking method to cook both the egg yolk and egg white perfectly. It also maintained the egg’s nutritional content better than traditional cooking methods.
Their eggs had higher levels of polyphenols than eggs cooked in other ways. Polyphenols are compounds that can act as antioxidants and fight off inflammation. It is unclear as to why periodic cooking causes eggs to have more polyphenols.
“Our guess is that cooking at a temperature that is so close to the protein’s denaturation temperature helps in preventing loss of nutrients,” said Di Maio.
The study was published in the journal Communications Engineering.
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