7 ms·
Periodic Cooking of Eggs
- camtarn 2y ago> Eggs are ... the funniest and most versatile ingredients to work with Very odd and somewhat amusing phrasing - presumably due to translation error? I'm assuming they meant 'most enjoyable' rather than 'funniest'.
- uxjw 2y agoThey may mean funny as in odd
- whycome 2y agoWhere do they imply that they think they’re odd?
- novia 2y agoHowToBasic on youtube disagrees.
- whycome 2y agoYeah it’s the first line in the intro and I can’t think of an interpretation of “funniest” that works in the context. > Eggs are one of the most valuable foods on the tables of consumers and in the kitchens of chefs due to their abundant functional properties that make them the funniest and most versatile ingredients to work with.
- krustyburger 2y agoIn Soviet Russia, egg periodic cooks you!
- foobarbecue 2y agoYeah it's got to be translation error -- "funnest" and "funniest" are the same in many languages and I've seen this mistake before. "Funnest" would also be strange here but I guess they mean "most enjoyable"
- marssaxman 2y agoThe unwavering commitment to the thoroughness of the investigation really makes this bit work. "So you think this is a frivolous topic?" the authors seem to be saying; "well, let us show you just how seriously we can take it."
- 60secs 2y agoI use a similar but simpler technique to cook eggs to a runny soft boiled by cracking eggs directly into a small quantity of boiling water. This sets the whites quickly but drops the temperature of the water before it can set the yolks. It's kind of like lazy poaching.
- CapeTheory 2y agoA competing research team in France almost cracked the same problem - but their funding agency said Un Oeuf is Un Oeuf.
- ndsipa_pomu 2y agoYou should be ashamed and feel bad for that
- lores 2y agoThat's the kind of pun the guillotine was invented for.
- treetalker 2y agoC'mon, les œufs faire.
- ortusdux 2y ago"periodic eggs were placed alternatively in boiling water (Th = 100 °C) for th = 2 min and water at Tc = 30 °C for tc = 2 min, for a total cooking time of 32 minutes, which corresponds to the repetition of the hot and cold cycles for a total of N = 8 times. In the case of periodic eggs, a bowl filled with water kept at 30 °C was used for the cold cooking cycle." I might try this later. The image looks like a great ramen egg.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> eggs were placed alternatively in boiling water (Th = 100 °C) Well nuts, at my altitude water boils at 93ºC. It doesn't appear there is a (known) closed-form solution to this problem, unfortunately :P.
- mrguyorama 2y agoClearly you should turn your kitchen into a gentle pressure vessel. It will make cooking so much easier. I think you could also just salt the water? That should raise the boiling temperature and hopefully it doesn't seep into the egg, though I think eggs can use some seasoning!
- ortusdux 2y agoMy rough calcs estimate you would need about 400mg of salt per ml of water to get a 7°C boiling point increase, but the max solubility of salt in 100°C water is 384mg/ml, so you might just get there with a supersaturated solution. Can sous-vide machines hold 100°C in oil?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> you could also just salt the water? Hmm, so to get a 12.5ºF dT with water and NaCl we need about 6.7 mol salt per kg water [1]. That's almost 400 g/kg, more than 10x the salinity of seawater. Pressure-vessel kitchen it is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling-point_elevation#Ebullioscopic_constants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling-point_elevation#Ebulli... i = 2, Kb = 0.93°F kg/mol [a] That 6.7 ml/kg is technically a molality, something I only point out because it's a silly-sounding word
- kzrdude 2y agoAlso described in this newspaper https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/06/scientists-crack-what-they-say-is-the-perfect-way-to-boil-an-egg https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/feb/06/scientists-c...
- biomcgary 2y agoThe 8 cycles between boiling and room temp would be tedious without automation. I wonder if a similar outcome would be achieved by sous vide followed by boiling briefly to set the white, much like sous vide steak followed by searing.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> 8 cycles between boiling and room temp would be tedious without automation Sounds like there is room in the market for a periodic sous vide device. Can't get around pumps. But maybe it's a two-piece device, with a heating element for the hot tank (use your own pot)-- the user is responsible for putting ice in the cold talk (use your own pot)-- and a hoses and pump assembly to dump and drain to and from the cooking tank (use your own pot). I guess the tankless system isn't the MVP. A two-egg cooker is. Two tanks, one the user fills with ice, the other which contains a thermometer and heating element, and a small cooking tank with circulation and a powerful pump (expensive bit) to quickly dump and drain.
- SAI_Peregrinus 2y agoOr a fryer basket style egg holder, that lifts the egg from tank to tank. Might be easier than trying to drain & refill the water.
- andrewflnr 2y agoI'm guessing you'd make the "basket" out of soft silicone, to reduce the risk of breaking them. But I agree that's the general approach.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> you'd make the "basket" out of soft silicone Metal shouldn’t break intact eggs and is easier to clean, more durable and less likely to leach nasties into your food [1]. Is there a way to determine egg temperature or doneness from outside? Like an acoustic or other feedback loop that lets the device tailor to the egg at hand. [1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10499202/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10499202/
- IncreasePosts 2y agoAnother method is to mix the yolk and albumen within the shell, and hard boil that as normal. Then you get a hard boiled scrambled egg with no albumen/yolk divide. I do this by rapidly spinning the egg before cooking. Works well for my kids who always would eat the white but not the yolk, no matter what texture I got it.
- Isamu 2y agoMy HN premium tier subscription just paid for itself.
- VoodooJuJu 2y ago[dead]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- buildsjets 2y agoTrying it right now, yolo’d a half dozen eggs. Good thing I’m rich enough to risk such an experiment.
- buildsjets 2y agoQuite good. Easy to peel as well. Only slightly inconvenient to make. Once we get a universal household servant androids, I’m definitely going to ask mine to make my eggs this way.