Scientists Have Finally Found the Perfect Way to Boil Eggs — But It Comes With a Minor Problem

Eggs are widely consumed sources of protein around the world but they cannot be just cooked randomly. While there is a common way of boiling eggs, Italian scientists have discovered an intricate new method to cook ‘perfectly’ boiled eggs that check all the boxes of taste and texture. The study published in the journal Communications Engineering suggests an innovative way to obtain a velvety and creamy yolk embedded in an egg white that is just the right texture but at a cost of time. 

While worrying about a perfectly boiled egg might be the least of anyone’s worries, it can often influence a person’s taste for the protein-rich ingredient. Boiling an egg the right way is rather complex as the yolk cooks at a lower temperature than egg whites making it difficult to adjust the heat. Using the basic way of cooking, what we often tend to get are boiled eggs either with chalky yolks or undercooked whites. Senior author of the study, professor Ernesto Di Maio of the University of Naples Federico II said, “I thought the techniques we use in materials science could produce the perfect egg, and the result really is exquisite,” per the Daily Mail. 

In this boiling method, the egg is transferred into boiling water and cold water periodically for two minutes for a total number of eight times– marked as the golden ticket to perfection. After 32 minutes of this process, the egg will be ready to eat. Essentially, this technique called periodic cooking can be used to solve the problem of an undercooked shell with a perfectly creamy yolk. The cold water keeps the yolk from attaining the chalky texture as in a hard-boiled while the white becomes already heated to be solid enough. The optimal temperature for the egg white was recorded at 85 degrees Celsius and the yolk at 65 degrees Celsius. While their new technique is ingenuine, it is a time-consuming process that requires 32 minutes precisely. 

Nevertheless, the material engineers cooked 300 eggs by trial and error until achieving the perfect way to boil an egg. There are no changes observed in the egg's nutritional content whatsoever. The researchers then compared their periodic-cooked egg with a hard-boiled egg, soft-boiled egg and the sous vide version employed in fancy restaurants. Before taking feedback from ordinary people, they asked eight expert tasters to try it out, just to be sure. The eggs were rated based on color, reliability, and softness. It was found that the egg cooked using the new technique fared better than most due to nearly perfect taste and texture. 

The yolk was saltier and sweeter than a soft-boiled egg whereas the white’s texture was a bit firmer than a sous vide egg. Di Maio noted that this version of the egg is “easier to spread” on toast while the sous vide egg makes the bread all smushy and wet. “But it is still not suitable to be put in an egg cup and eaten with soldiers, which would require a soft-boiled egg,” he added. The professor acknowledged the rather excessive time needed to simply boil an egg, and the process may not be feasible for many. He said it was worth the shot for loved ones and recalled treating the eggs to his friends and family during a lab Christmas party earlier.