No Joke: The Perfect Breakfast Egg Takes 32 Minutes
Researchers claim to have developed a method for cooking the ideal breakfast egg. No special laboratory equipment is needed; the home kitchen is completely sufficient. However, an ambitious egg cook should have a little patience.
Researchers Analyzed Cooking Eggs with Equations
The goal is to create a creamy yolk surrounded by a soft yet stable egg white. The challenge lies in the fact that the yolk cooks at lower temperatures than the egg white. If cooked too long, the yolk can become chalky, while the egg white retains a gel-like consistency when cooked more slowly.
Researchers cooked hundreds of eggs and used mathematical methods to optimize the process. One equation dealt with the spread of heat between a hot surface and the egg, while another analyzed how the contents of the egg change from liquid to solid state with a gel-like transition in between.
Perfect Breakfast Egg Thanks to Periodic Cooking
The method: The eggs are moved back and forth in a steam basket between boiling and lukewarm water (30 degrees) at two-minute intervals - for a total duration of 32 minutes. They are then cooled under cold water and can be peeled. Detailed information on this procedure can be found in the journal "Communications Engineering" published on Thursday.
In the technique recommended by scientists called periodic cooking, the egg white is treated by alternating heating and cooling until it becomes completely solid. The yolk, on the other hand, remains stable at a constant temperature and is cooked until it reaches a creamy consistency. "It's almost like a spread," explains study author Emilia Di Lorenzo from the University of Naples Federico II.
(Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.