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Optimum temperature from TFA: Egg white: * At 180 degrees: The main protein in egg whites—ovalbumen—will cross-link and solidify, giving you a totally firm eg

by gvb 11y ago

Optimum temperature from TFA: Egg white: * At 180 degrees: The main protein in egg whites—ovalbumen—will cross-link and solidify, giving you a totally firm egg white (see the whites of the 7 and 9 minute eggs). Egg yolks, on the other hand, follow a different set of temperatures: * At 145 degrees: They begin to thicken and set up. * At 158 degrees: They become totally firm, but are still bright orange and shiny. ---- A sous vide setup might work, but it probably isn't worth the effort for eggs. You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees. TBD is whether the 145 degree sous vide temperature hurts peel-ability (likely) and how long to cook the egg to finish the whites properly without overcooking the yoke.

jerf 11y ago
"You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees." I was unclear about what I was thinking. I was thinking using the sous vide hardware to prep water at 200F or 190F and try boiling in that, since trying to maintain that temperature by hand is very hard, or at least, very labor intensive. But my failure to communicate that well produced another interesting strategy from you. And I have to admit I'm more searching for perfection in the abstract sense than interested in changing how I cook them. If perfect turns out to be "individually microwave the egg for 6 seconds, then cook in sous vide bath at 185F for six minutes, then boil for 3 more, then dump in ice bath immediately"... yeah, I'm not going to do that. But I'm intellectually curious.
- gvb 11y ago
  The basis of sous vide is to cook the meat to the desired level of "doneness" (directly related to temperature of the inside of the steak) and then sear the outside. Searing the outside is mostly decoupled from the inside cooking because it happens fast and thus only on the very outside layer of the meat. I mapped this strategy directly to eggs, but it probably would work poorly. With a steak, "sear the outside to your preference" is easy. With an egg, "cook the whites without overcooking the yoke" is likely to be difficult. Your suggested method of using the bath to maintain the water temperature would probably work well and probably result in less "rubbery" whites, but probably is overkill compared to maintaining the water temperature at 212 degrees (trivial) and control cooking via time per the article (and tradition). Plus you would have to boil 3,000 eggs to scientifically establish the new cook times. ;-)
kingnothing 11y ago
Here's the Serious Eats guide to sous vide eggs: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/10/sous-vide-101-all-about-eggs.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/10/sous-vide-101-all-about-e... For soft boiled, I've only tried it at 144f for 1 hour, but was a touch softer than I wanted. I think a few degrees higher might fix that. Part of the white was slightly liquid, but it was easy to discard. Peeling was a pain. 165f was good for a hard boiled egg. The texture was softer than normal which I thought was great.

by gvb 11y ago

jerf 11y ago

"You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees." I was unclear about what I was thinking. I was thinking using the sous vide hardware to prep water at 200F or 190F and try boiling in that, since trying to maintain that temperature by hand is very hard, or at least, very labor intensive. But my failure to communicate that well produced another interesting strategy from you. And I have to admit I'm more searching for perfection in the abstract sense than interested in changing how I cook them. If perfect turns out to be "individually microwave the egg for 6 seconds, then cook in sous vide bath at 185F for six minutes, then boil for 3 more, then dump in ice bath immediately"... yeah, I'm not going to do that. But I'm intellectually curious.

gvb 11y ago
The basis of sous vide is to cook the meat to the desired level of "doneness" (directly related to temperature of the inside of the steak) and then sear the outside. Searing the outside is mostly decoupled from the inside cooking because it happens fast and thus only on the very outside layer of the meat. I mapped this strategy directly to eggs, but it probably would work poorly. With a steak, "sear the outside to your preference" is easy. With an egg, "cook the whites without overcooking the yoke" is likely to be difficult. Your suggested method of using the bath to maintain the water temperature would probably work well and probably result in less "rubbery" whites, but probably is overkill compared to maintaining the water temperature at 212 degrees (trivial) and control cooking via time per the article (and tradition). Plus you would have to boil 3,000 eggs to scientifically establish the new cook times. ;-)

kingnothing 11y ago

Here's the Serious Eats guide to sous vide eggs: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/10/sous-vide-101-all-about-eggs.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/10/sous-vide-101-all-about-e... For soft boiled, I've only tried it at 144f for 1 hour, but was a touch softer than I wanted. I think a few degrees higher might fix that. Part of the white was slightly liquid, but it was easy to discard. Peeling was a pain. 165f was good for a hard boiled egg. The texture was softer than normal which I thought was great.