The scientifically perfect way to boil an egg has just been discovered.

[sir pball]

I'm not even kidding – the procedure was published as a full paper in friggin' Nature on Thursday.

Long story short, every prior method (hard boiling, soft boiling, sous vide) is imperfect; the yolk and white need two different temperatures to be cooked to perfection, so simply bringing the egg to a uniform temperature will never work properly. By alternating between water baths of two different temperatures for specific times, it's possible to cook the two different parts perfectly. You'll still need a circulator ("sous vide machine" ) to hold a bath at a steady 30˚C, but those are hardly uncommon these days.

For those of you who don't want to slog through a Serious Scientific Paper (really, there's thermodynamics and charts and and and, it is NOT an easy read), the procedure is actually really simple. The eggs get a cycle of a 100˚C, boiling, bath for 2 minutes, then a 30˚C bath for 2 minutes, repeated 8 times. Yes, you're gonna have to stand there for 32 minutes with a 2-minute timer, but a small cost for perfection!

Full paper, they were kind enough to publish it open-access: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44172-024-00334-w

[BlueGreenLady]

1. Thank you!

I was in dire need of a new, time consuming distraction from the current political circus.

[Figarosmom]

2. Fu*k that

[Turbineguy]

3. Can you do that without an egg?

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Seriously,...

I can think of some people I'd like to boil. But mostly using oil. That's probably going to significantly influence the thermodynamics. 😉

[sir pball]

12. I guess you could, but it wouldn't work so well on meat

You want more of a steady, low(ish) temperature for that, 175-180˚F for at least a couple of hours. Lets the collagen (cartilage) break down into gelatin without denaturing the muscle fibers too much, so you get meat that just falls apart, but isn't completely dried out.

And yes, I get it

[Turbineguy]

13. I found eggs yesterday

2 dozen for $8.79 at the local Costco.

[multigraincracker]

4. I like mine basted. Perfect on a slice of toast. I use my knuckle to test it. When the yolk is no longer cold, it's read

ready

[sir pball]

11. I'm an over-easy fan myself

Let it fry until there's just a sheen of raw white on the top, and the yolk of course is still liquid, give it a flip, count to three and slide it onto the toast!

[sinkingfeeling]

5. My rare eggs will remain imperfect.

[lastlib]

7. I'll just scramble the darn thing, TYVM....

The only way to cook an egg is THOROUGHLY. ie, vulcanized.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. This post is outstanding! Thank you so much!

I love cooking and science. I bet NNadir would enjoy it as he's our resident scientist. My presupposition is thermodynamics is something he knows something about.

Thanks so much for sharing this.

❤️

[Callalily]

9. Very interesting procedure,

but I'll just continue to use my instant pot.

[sir pball]

10. I mean, realistically I'm just gonna stick with my 11-minute boil

It is wildly labor-intensive, if as simple as can be (though I can see *** restaurants adopting this…labor is meaningless when you have an army of slave-wage externs) – but the formally-trained-scientist-turned-professional-chef in me absolutely squeals with delight at the time and effort these boffins put into figuring this out!

[eppur_se_muova]

14. The scientific interest is a worthy thing, but the conclusion seems headed for an Ig Nobel Prize. nt

[sir pball]

15. I don't disagree, but I'm not sure I've ever seen an Ig Nobel...

…that was published in Nature. I'm not sure why they took this paper, but as I'm sure you know their reputation is…not such that they would want to have an IgN on it.

Honestly, speaking as a fine dining chef and formerly-credentialed scientist, this isn't *entirely* useless research…I could easily see a three-Michelin-star restaurant adopting this technique.

[Kali]

16. my only concern is peeling

at one point I got obsessed with the color problem on the yolk-white interface but realized I only use them for deviled eggs anyway so that didn't matter.

my go to for easier/est peeling was aged eggs and cooling under water. worked most of the time, then a friend gave me a Japanese egg cooker. another appliance to find storage for.

decided to give it a try before getting rid of it...works GREAT. fresh eggs (like fresh from my chickens fresh) peel just fine. so I found a place to store it.