I eat a lot of eggs. At least three, sometimes more every day. So I was tempted by this bit in National Geographic about how to boil the perfect egg. (AppleNews link cos NG wants your email addy).
And then I read it.
According to a team of Italian researchers, there is a good reason why boiling the perfect egg is such a challenge: albumen (the egg white) and yolk require two different temperatures for optimal cooking. That’s around 185°F for the former and approximately 149°F for the latter.
Writing in the journal Communications Engineering, researchers from the University of Naples Federico II claim to have discovered the method that best cooks both albumen and yolk and leads to eggs that are both more flavorful and nutritious than those cooked by other methods. The drawback? You’ll need two pots of water, a thermometer, and just over half an hour.
The technique involves a pot of boiling water and a pot or bowl of water that is kept at approximately 86°F. The key is to place the eggs into the boiling water for two minutes, then into the cooler water for two more minutes and back into the boiling water again, the process repeating for eight full cycles, or 32 minutes.
There is some superchef who does this, apparently, or something like it, and charges a hundred dollarydoos per goog.
Seems cheap.