Posted on 02/06/2025 4:27:29 PM PST by Red Badger
Scientists have developed an innovative cooking technique that perfects the balance between a firm egg white and a soft, rich yolk.
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Boiling eggs just got a scientific upgrade. By alternating an egg between boiling and cool water, researchers have found a way to cook both the yolk and white optimally — leading to better texture and higher nutritional content than traditional methods.
A newly developed cooking method called periodic cooking offers a way to perfectly cook both the yolk and white of a boiled egg, according to a study published today (February 6) in Communications Engineering. This technique produces an evenly cooked egg with a better nutritional profile than traditional boiling or sous vide methods.
Cooking an egg evenly is a challenge because the yolk and white solidify at different temperatures — the white (albumen) at 85°C (185°F) and the yolk at 65°C (149°F). Traditional boiling at 100°C (212°F) fully sets the yolk but can overcook the white, while sous vide cooking at 60-70°C (140-158°F) for an hour leaves the white undercooked.
Periodic Cooking: A Game-Changing Technique
To solve this, Pellegrino Musto and his team used computational fluid dynamics simulations to design an improved cooking process. Their method involves repeatedly moving an egg between boiling water (100°C / 212°F) and cooler water (30°C /86°F) every two minutes for a total of 32 minutes.
This process, dubbed periodic cooking, was tested in real-life experiments alongside traditional hard-boiled, soft-boiled, and sous vide eggs. The results were analyzed for texture, taste, and chemical composition using advanced techniques such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry.
Texture, Taste, and Nutritional Perks
Periodically-cooked eggs had a soft yolk similar to that of a sous vide egg, while the consistency of the white was somewhere between that of sous vide and soft-boiled. Temperatures in the periodically-cooked egg white ranged between 35 and 100 degrees Celsius during cooking, while the yolk remained at a consistent temperature of 67 degrees Celsius. Chemical analysis suggested that the periodically-cooked egg yolks also contained more polyphenols — micronutrients which have been explored for their health benefits.
The authors believe their approach could also have applications in the curing and crystallization of other materials.
Reference:
“Periodic cooking of eggs”
February 2025, Communications Engineering.
DOI: 10.1038/s44172-024-00334-w
Too much work for me. Lol
That sounds like an easy, efficient, uncomplicated technique that everyone is going to rush to adopt...
(Not.)
now if we only had some eggs to boil...................
And just who, with any sanity at all, is going to spend 32 minutes carefully boiling an egg???
Cost/Benefit analysis, eggheads.
Hopefully they discovered this with our tax dollars.
(That started out as sarcasm, but now might just be reasonable enough to get a federal grant to stu... And Trump cancelled the Department of Energy egg cooking grants.)
Bring eggs to room temp.
Bring water to low boil.
Put eggs in water for 10 minutes.
Drain eggs and run under cold water, then chill in the fridge.
“every two minutes for a total of 32 minutes.”
Talk about junk science.
I put eggs in cold water and boil for 15 minutes. Hard boiled eggs come out great.
Kool, makes perfect sense.
Who knew? [except physics/math model students]
This outcome shoulda been widely spread public decades ago.
[I suspect my 1992 486 shoulda been able to predict this.]
Boil 11 minutes. Cool off right away and peel right away. Perfect.
“Hopefully they discovered this with our tax dollars.”
Italy
Sounds like a good job for a robot. I’m not standing over eggs cooking switching between hot and cold water ever 2 minutes for 32 minutes.
I boil eggs like this:
Crack/smash the shell on the large side of the egg.
Put them in a pot and cover them with water.
Bring to a rapid boil, usually take about 12 mins.
Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 14mins.
Cool under cold running water or empty water and add ice cubes.
Peel (the smashing of the ends of the egg shells ensures easy peeling and pretty eggs).
Is this some kind of yolk? It just shouldn't be that hard.
32 minutes?...uh, NO
There used to be a thing in high school called ‘Home Economics’ where people learned these things................
I’ll file this along with
“those who eat their candy bars with a knife & fork.”
Hmm. I will reread this (first time I read it, I fell asleep) and maybe find an extra polyphenol in the yolks...
My standard practice is to drop 3 room-temp eggs into boiling water and remove them at 4 minutes. There seems to be nothing notable about the eggs after that. Whites are white, yolks are yellow. *shrug*
Boiled eggs in Instant pot are easiest...and easy to peel!
TIP:
Add 1/4 cup of VINEGAR, either kind, to the water before boiling...............
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