“What is the recipe for a perfectly cooked egg?”
- Hervé This, Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor
I am more confused now than when I began. But, in a completely odd and mind-boggling way, isn’t that kind of exciting? Before this weekend I never gave an ounce of thought to hard-boiled eggs or how to cook them. I now have spent the better part of a weekend slow boiling them. The previous method took under 15 minutes. And I did all for a dish that I didn’t and probably won’t eat that often.
It was all because I picked up Molecular Gastronomy by Hervé This (It’s a French name, and I don’t have any idea how to pronounce it). The cover looked interesting and text was lively and inviting. It approaches food scientifically, much like Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking. But while the latter volume is encyclopedic in nature, this slender volume only covers a few topics and is conversational and completely engaging. That’s where I found this incredible--and completely infuriating--chapter on hard-boiled eggs.
Why is it infuriating? After three pages spent exploring the intricacies of cooking the eggs, he basically comes to the conclusion that hard-boiled eggs need to be cooked at a low temperature, around 154 degrees Fahrenheit, because that’s the point when the yolk will set (the white sets at 144). He concludes, “Obviously this would mean longer cooking times, but the result is a perfectly cooked egg.”
Great. I’m all about exploring ridiculous recipes in search of perfection. Who knew that a hard boiled egg could reach anything close to perfection? We’re talking about the humble hard-boiled egg here. But there’s one little problem with Monsieur This’s chapter: He never gave the recipe.
I’m left dangling at the end of this beautifully written chapter with the knowledge that hard-boiled eggs should be cooked slowly at 154 degrees F, but am given no indication on how long it will take. He hints at the traditional method Hamine eggs being cooked for “several hours,” but what exactly does that mean? Are we talking about 3 hours or 10? I scoured the net for some kind of reasoning. I searched “hamine eggs” and got gobbledegook responses and some random site that wanted to cook the eggs for 10 hours. A few other sites just linked back to that site. I needed some proof.
And what better place to find proof than Harold McGee? His On Food and Cooking had a whole section on long cooked eggs. He calls them “an intriguing alternative” which can be cooked for anywhere between “6 to 18 hours.” Still no recipe, but I’m finally on to something. The most interesting aspect about the process is what happens to the flavor, which he says generates “flavors and pigments typical of browned foods.”
The first problem was the temperature. 154 degrees is rather exact, and I had no idea if I’d be able to reach and maintain such a temperature. I brought a large pot of water to a boil, reduced it to low and waited. After about 10 minutes I checked the temperature. 155 degrees and holding. I still can’t believe it. I also checked what would happen if I put a lot of water in a slow cooker and turned the heat to high. Guess what? The temperature hovered about 160. I’m not kidding. It wasn’t supposed to be that easy.
Then I stuck a bunch of eggs in the pot, and set the timer. At every hour I’d pull one out, crack it open, and see what had happened.
After 1 hour I was sure this technique was worthless. The egg yolk looked completely cooked to me. I expected some creaminess, but all the yolk had lumped together into a big mess. The whites were set. Convinced of the fraud that was this slow method, I set another egg in the pot and decided to see what 30 minutes would do.
After 30 minutes the whites hadn’t set and the yolk was a mess. So much with my theory. I’d just have to wait.
After 2 hours the yolk had begun to set a little more. I could see now that I had just jumped the gun. The yolks were going to be fine. The whites remained about the same.
After 3 hours there was noticeable increase in creaminess. Instead of that usual chalky yolk that hard-boiled eggs have, this yolk was nearly spreadable.
After 4 hours the egg got even better. It didn’t have the typical hard-boiled egg sulfuric aroma, and instead had a perfectly pleasant one. The yolk was delicious.
After 5 hours something horrible happened. The white literally fell apart and the yolk looked deformed. I threw it away, thinking that maybe I just had a bad egg. The next egg I sampled was the exact same way. Perhaps water had leaked into the shell causing the whites to break down. Either way, I had two worthless eggs on my hand, and no more to cook.
The next day I cooked a few more eggs this time in the slow cooker filled with water, and let them sit for 8 to 10 hours. The whites were fine this time and the yolk maintained its creamy nature. But the aroma had changed considerably. I think it was the “browned” flavor that McGee had talked about. It’s not an awful smell, but I found the 4 hour eggs far more pleasant.
So I’m not completely sure where I stand on the method. I do know that after sampling about a dozen eggs, I’m not going to be having one any time soon. But the method does work, and I did have the best hard boiled egg I'd ever eaten.
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
All I can say is Wow! I wish I could try that sometime, but that would require a meat/candy thermometer, which I don't have, and am not willing to buy just for this since I wouldn't use it otherwise. Maybe I can ask around if one of my friends has one…
154 degrees is not 160 degrees.
Zdraste! Vot takoi vot u vas horoshiy sait. Spasibki.
Wow, what an interesting idea! This was an informative experiment, thanks for taking the time to do it. I may try and duplicate your results today, because I'm testing a new "provincial stuffed egg" recipe.
Now that I think of it, in the show Good Eats with Alton Brown, he mentions something similar to this in the "Mission: Poachable" episode. He discovers the way to avoid drying out his catfish is to hold the poaching liquid at the temperature that you want the meat to finish. Although it makes sense, I'm not sure I would have thought to do the same for eggs.
The perfect hard boiled egg is much easier than the process you've described, and is a time tested method that I found in the Gourmet cookbook:
Cover eggs with 1.5 inches of cold water in saucepan. Bring water to boil, let boil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove eggs from water and rinse under cold water for 5 minutes.
Easy peasy, and the best, creamy, perfect hard-boiled eggs you will ever eat.
The Gourmet Cookbook (the big yellow cookbook edited by Ruth Reichel that came out a few years ago), if you don't already have it, is well worth the $40 bucks it costs…
It does have a lot of fancy, schmancy recipes, but more importantly, it has a TON of invaluable techniques for everything from cooking eggs, to cutting meat, to making preserves. And it also has some great, super simple, amazingly delicious recipes.
Anyway. I highly recommend it.
Ahh yes, but does the book cover soft-boiled eggs? I personally like my eggs with the whites completely set, but the yolks only partially so. The center of the yolk should still be soft and loose, and the outer edges just beginning to set.
Mm… eggs.
Alton Brown has a really good recipe for Hard boiled eggs. I've used it for about a year + since (whenever it first aired).
Cover your eggs in a pot with water, add a little salt bring just to a boil, then put a lid on it and cover for 10-11 minutes. Drop straight into ice water. It works every time.
stu
I have a fascination with long, slow cooked foods — perhaps I'll give these a try this weekend while I'm making the five hour baked beans from the River Cottage Meat Book!
Really though, I love hardboiled (and soft boiled) eggs, and think it's awesome that you did this experiment and shared the results!
i so love this post
and since i am an egg fanatic i am going to try this… maybe even tomorrow
and i'm excited about it!
The egg after 30 minutes looks like an onsen tamago, a delicioius treat popular in Japan … but we have salmonella-free eggs here.
There are various recipes on the net, but none of them really work, and even the consumer onsen tamago cookers don't really work, since the egg has to be cooked at an absolutely constant low temperature.
"Onsen tamago" means hot springs egg, after their origin when people at hot springs would cook eggs in them.
What size egg did you use? I imagine that it affects the length of time it will take to get to the just right yolk.
All I can think about is that "Hamine Eggs" sounds just like "Ham 'n' Eggs."
That three hour egg looks pretty good to me. But alas, I have no slow cooker, so I guess the boil and let sit covered for 10 minutes is good enough for me.
I am curious about any good soft boiling methods you guys have- I too want a firmish white and a molten center.
@Mark–we've got salmonella free eggs here in the US too, it's just hard to tell them apart from the ones with salmonella…
this is good stuff!
I'm going to experiment with this as well..but I think it might be fun to spin it by doing it traditional (for me anyhow) then, cooling, peeling, and then boiling the already hard boiled egg in a decent dark belgian ale…mmmmmmm.
Cheers man, I really enjoy the material here. Thanks!
Brian
"So I’m not completely sure where I stand on the method."
"I did have the best hard boiled egg I'd ever eaten."
These two statements in the same paragraph? Why so equivocal? Which one is which?
Just say it: you performed a rigorous investigation and found that the egg cooked at approximately 150 – 160 F for 4 hours was "the best hard boiled egg [you had] ever eaten."
Or did you?
Reminds me of the story of the boy who cried wolf.
"The typical hard-boiled egg sulfuric aroma" (plus grey-green layer) is only a result of overcooking your eggs.
There's a book called "Cookwise" by Shirley O. Corriher (you may recognize her from Good Eats) where she tells you the hows and whys of cooking. She says the ease of egg peeling is related to pH and older eggs lose some of their carbon dioxide and are alkaline higher. She says when hardcooking eggs, don't add vinegar to the water, but salt will help as it makes the egg white coagulate faster to seal any cracks in the shell.
Science, yo.
This is fascinating stuff; it reminds me of the much-discussed North African "300-minute egg," which is baked in a low-temperature oven over several hours and imparts the "browned food" characteristics McGee indicates. You can see more about it (including pictures) at this URL:
http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=64
My own recent experiments with eggs have involved discovering the pleasures of poaching in lightly-oiled plastic wrap [breaking an egg into (truffle) oiled wrap, bundling it up and tying the top with kitchen twine, then cooking for 4 minutes in lightly simmering water]. Much neater than the traditional method and intensely flavored with truffle!
Thanks very much for your always enjoyable posts.
wunami – I used some eggs I found at the farmer’s market. They were ALL different sizes. I’m sure that had some bearing on the finished dish, but I’m not really sure.
Brian – Please let me know how that turns out. That sounds wonderful.
SP – I guess that was a little confusing, but what I meant was that it was a wonderful egg but I may not make it that often because of the time required. The 10 minute hard-boiled egg has its merits.
Chewy – Thanks for breaking it down for me!
John – That’s an interesting site. The pictures are pretty wild. I haven’t even thought about poaching eggs that, though! Looks like I have more work to do.
Hervé This = Hervay Teess. More or less.
This is funny– I did hamine eggs a few months ago. Nigella Lawson has a recipe in FEAST. They're a traditional Sephardi Jewish funeral food, usually cooked with onion skins and coffee grounds in the water. She brings the water to a boil, transfers to a smaller burner, uses a heat diffuser on the burner, and cooks them for 7 hours on low. After sitting in the coffee-onion skin water for so long, they had a woodsy smell to them. I found them to be overcooked after 7 hours, but still good.
If you google the perfect hard boiled eggs and 'Julia Child', it will give you a recipe that involves letting them stand for 17 minutes and then doing a few transfers between ice baths and boiling water. Kind of troublesome, but awesome, awesome eggs.
great stuff. met you guys at beard awards. ira kleinman
Have you tried cooking the eggs in an oven, instead of water? I follow Alton Brown's recipe (put eggs in a cold oven, set to 325 and wait 30 minutes).
I wonder if I could duplicate your success, by setting the oven lower and waiting longer.
I'm having a heck of a time finding any information for those of us who *like* the yolk completely set and even starting to dry out a little. I can't stand any runniness at all in the yolk. That point where they *just* start to get that green layer is right about where I find the yolk actually cooked to where I like it.
hi!
I just saw your blog googling for hamine eggs that I am reading now from Herve This!! Very nice post, and a coincidence!
Did you try any more from this book? i am just reading it and wud love to cross refer to real time experiments!
Hamine" eggs are Yeminite, and are eggs based in oil and foiled and baked 225F over night. Coffee-onion skin eggs are Sephardic for Shabbat, but I have never heard of them cooked in that manner. The easiest way I know of making Sephardic Roasted Eggs is to layer a pan with coffee grounds (used is fine), then nestle the eggs on the grounds, then cover the eggs with more coffee grounds. Put in middle rack of oven (200F) and then add water (any temp) till eggs are covered. Bake 10 – 12 hours. You will have the best mellow browned eggs you will ever taste.
Hi Nick,
I tried this method as an attempt at an interesting Scotch Egg recipe.
Though I didn’t have a slow cooker so ended up putting a big pot of water in the bottom oven of my Aga, what do you know the temperature was around about 160 ish. I did find that the egg white was a little soft after three hours. It may be that I left the eggs in for too long. You said that at after 5 hours something horrible happened to the Egg, perhaps as I was cooking it a little hotter the white was just beginning to emulsify.
Will obviously have to experiment more…
Many thanks for a truly interesting post.
Many thanks,
Diccon
If after boiling an egg, and the yolk is still chewy and undercooked, could I possibly let the egg sit in boiled water for a few minutes until the yolk is fully cooked. Or would that ruin it?
Congratulations on your blog, and this experiment in particular. I think you need to be even more accurate with your temperature control mate, remember the very,very small margin between the coagulation temperature of the white and that of the yolk. There was a Michelin chefs here in the UK saying 5 hours is perfect. We can only dream of sous-vide machines eh?
so funny. i am reading his book and have been so intrigued by the hamine egg challenge.
So, were the eggs cooked in the pot for four hours that came out perfectly cooked at 154 degrees F? And why cook the slow cooker eggs for eight hours at near the same temp.
Regardless, I am going to experiment myself. Probably slow cooker and test one every hour or so.
I’m reading the same book by Hervé This, and I was wondering exaclty the same.
I was even thinking to make the same experiment: thanks for having published your experience!
I don’t know if you’ve come across Claudia Roden’s ‘New Book of Middle Eastern Food’ but that’s got a great Beid al Hamine recipe. I’ve never been as scientific as you have here but I just put them on the gas at ‘very low’ overnight…
I’ve read elsewhere that the long cooking comes from the Jewish tradition of not cooking on the Sabbath- you set them in the embers of the fire before sunset on Friday and have ‘em for breakfast on Saturday morning. Yum Yum! Wishing you further eggy success