How to Boil an Egg
There’s more than one way to boil an egg. It seems that either everyone has a surefire method or has no clue how to do it. The British Egg Information Service apparently gets numerous inquiries about how exactly to get the perfect boiled egg. The British Egg Industry, which set up the service, has responded by developing a self-timing egg, printed with special ink.
People will be able to buy a carton of eggs specific to their preference for either hard, medium or soft boiled eggs. The ink changes colour when the water reaches a specific temperature, and after it’s been boiling for three minutes for soft boiled egg, after four minutes for a medium boiled one and after seven minutes for a properly hard boiled egg.
An egg that tells me when it’s cooked. Its not so ingenious as it seems at first glance. Using these eggs might mean I have to stand over the stove to watch the ink change. First Science’s Sandrine Ceurstemont also raises important considerations, like the people who don’t necessarily like the same style of eggs everyday. Should they buy three cartons of eggs?
There is another possibility: an egg cooker invented by Ben Harris from the U.K.’s Brunel University.
It’s called PerfEGG and to get a soft boiled egg, it keeps the water temperature constant for 8.5 minutes without having it reach the boiling point. For a hard boiled one, a timer on the device can be adjusted and apparently the same results are achieved regardless of the size of the egg.
This is good for the single egg boiler. But what if you want to make more? I hope there’s a multi-egg PerfEGG in the works.
Ms. Ceurstemont also gives her own over-the-stove method for boiling eggs, handed down to her by her mom:
Place the egg in water and let it heat gently until the water starts to boil. The egg should be left to boil for about a minute, at which point the pot should be covered and the heat turned off. The egg should then be left in the covered pot for between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on if you want a soft or hard boiled egg.
The humble egg. Who knew it could inspire so much creativity and discussion? For more information and egg trivia, click here.
[Source: First Science]
Tags: eggs, boiling eggs, PerfEGG, egg cooker
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Cooking, Product News and Reviews
2 opinions for How to Boil an Egg
Kerri
Aug 8, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I’ve heard the soft-boiled egg also called the 3-minute egg, which makes it really easy to remember how long to boil it! It kinda makes me giggle how many contraptions there are for cooking eggs, of all things. Although, I do gain a great deal of pleasure from a perfect over-easy fried egg. :D
Maricar
Aug 10, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Hi Kerri, I even have a little gadget for cooking eggs in the microwave oven (never got it to work though. :) ). Now, for the perfect fried egg, that might be a topic for another post.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: