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There is some debate as to whether it is possible to soft-boil the perfect egg. Let me put your mind at rest; it is indeed possible. Not only that you can have some fun working out how to go about it. The perfect soft-boiled egg has a firm, tender and completely cooked white with a soft, runny yolk.
Some facts:
Egg white is composed of a lot of long organic molecules, if you cook the white quickly; they form a rubbery spaghetti heap. If you cook the white slowly, the molecules line up and the cooked white is soft and tender. This stops you concentrating on the texture and leaves you able to focus on the taste. The ideal soft-boiled egg should be cooked slowly.
Egg white cooks at 62C while egg yolk cooks at 68C. The ideal soft-boiled egg should be prepared at 65C.
There are a number of ways to achieve this:
CONTROL TIME
Some people think you should be able to produce the perfect 3 minute egg without considering that conditions vary considerably between kitchens.
What size eggs do you buy? Larger eggs take longer to cook Where do you store your eggs? Colder eggs take longer to cook What are you cooking with? Electric stoves take time to warm up Where do you get your water? Hot water comes to the boil faster than cold water. What do you do to the egg after you've boiled it? Dunking the egg in cold water stops it from continuing to cook in the shell.1
These are all factors that can be addressed by changing your timer. Work out how long it takes with your prefered implements/system and it's just a matter of getting that egg out at exactly the right time.
1 The shell also separates from the skin making them easier to peel.
CONTROL TEMPERATURE
Bake your egg in an accurate oven set to 65C rather than boiling it. Acquire a laboratory hotplate in the correct temperature range. Cook on a stove-top with a thermometer at 65C and don’t boil the water. Arrange for water to boil at 65C2.
Please note eggs do not cook nearly as quickly at 65C.
2As it happens, water only boils at 100C at sea level because of the weight of all that air pushing down on it. If you go higher, where there is less air, water boils at lower temperatures. Some dodgy mathematics says the following conditions apply:
Elevation: 28 300 feet = 8,625.84 meters
Current Barometric Pressure: 25.9 mmHg
Boiling Point Estimate: 149 degree Fahrenheit = 65 degree Celsius
This means that the perfect soft-boiled egg is in sight at 8.6km. Alas, you will need to take oxygen as it takes a good few minutes to boil an egg at 65C and you’ll have less than that conscious.
"The first men to reach 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) did not know what they were facing. It is now known that at an altitude of only 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), the brain loses 10 percent of the oxygen it needs and judgment begins to falter. At 18,000 feet (5,486 feet), there is a 30 percent decrease in oxygen to the brain, and a person can lose consciousness in 30 minutes. At 30,000 feet (9,144 meters), loss of consciousness occurs in less."
Some facts:
Egg white is composed of a lot of long organic molecules, if you cook the white quickly; they form a rubbery spaghetti heap. If you cook the white slowly, the molecules line up and the cooked white is soft and tender. This stops you concentrating on the texture and leaves you able to focus on the taste. The ideal soft-boiled egg should be cooked slowly.
Egg white cooks at 62C while egg yolk cooks at 68C. The ideal soft-boiled egg should be prepared at 65C.
There are a number of ways to achieve this:
CONTROL TIME
Some people think you should be able to produce the perfect 3 minute egg without considering that conditions vary considerably between kitchens.
These are all factors that can be addressed by changing your timer. Work out how long it takes with your prefered implements/system and it's just a matter of getting that egg out at exactly the right time.
1 The shell also separates from the skin making them easier to peel.
CONTROL TEMPERATURE
Please note eggs do not cook nearly as quickly at 65C.
2As it happens, water only boils at 100C at sea level because of the weight of all that air pushing down on it. If you go higher, where there is less air, water boils at lower temperatures. Some dodgy mathematics says the following conditions apply:
Elevation: 28 300 feet = 8,625.84 meters
Current Barometric Pressure: 25.9 mmHg
Boiling Point Estimate: 149 degree Fahrenheit = 65 degree Celsius
This means that the perfect soft-boiled egg is in sight at 8.6km. Alas, you will need to take oxygen as it takes a good few minutes to boil an egg at 65C and you’ll have less than that conscious.
"The first men to reach 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) did not know what they were facing. It is now known that at an altitude of only 10,000 feet (3,048 meters), the brain loses 10 percent of the oxygen it needs and judgment begins to falter. At 18,000 feet (5,486 feet), there is a 30 percent decrease in oxygen to the brain, and a person can lose consciousness in 30 minutes. At 30,000 feet (9,144 meters), loss of consciousness occurs in less."
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