A group of Italian scientists have concluded in a research that the best way to boil an egg to the perfect texture
takes 32 minutes. It's done by
placing the egg in boiling water and cold water alternately, 2 minutes in each.
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Emilia Di Lorenzo and colleagues propose an approach to address the energy transport problem of cooking the albumen and yolk of a boiled egg at their optimal temperatures without separation. By alternating immersion in boiling water and water at 30∘C, the researchers achieve a fully set albumen...
www.nature.com
Periodic cooking of eggs Published: 06 February 2025
Emilia Di Lorenzo, Francesca Romano, Lidia Ciriaco, Nunzia Iaccarino, Luana Izzo, Antonio Randazzo,
Abstract
Egg cooks are challenged by the two-phase structure: albumen and yolk require two cooking temperatures. Separation or a compromise temperature to the detriment of food safety or taste preference are the options. In the present article, we find that it is possible to cook albumen and yolk at two temperatures without separation by using periodic boundary conditions in the energy transport problem. Through mathematical modeling and subsequent simulation, we are able to design the novel cooking method, namely periodic cooking. Comparison with established egg cooking procedures through a plethora of characterization techniques, including Sensory Analysis, Texture Profile Analysis and FT-IR spectroscopy, confirms the different cooking extents and the different variations in protein denaturation with the novel approach. The method not only optimizes egg texture and nutrients, but also holds promise for innovative culinary applications and materials treatment.
Conclusions
It appears that the design of the novel cooking method, namely periodic cooking, was carried out successfully. Designing of the process and subsequent simulation proved fundamental in the understanding of the physics behind the cooking of an egg and allowed us to finely tune the process parameters with respect to our objective, i.e., having two different, optimal, temperatures in the two phases of the egg. Simulated results proved to be consistent with the results of cooking experiments, and the FT-IR spectra measurements corroborated them, proving the different extent of protein denaturation (and consequent thickening and gelation) with different cooking methods (namely, hard-boiling, soft-boiling, sous vide and periodic cooking). ... contd
