My recipe for the perfect egg

[Major Nikon]

My method is pretty simple. I cook a dozen eggs in a 7qt crock pot half full of water at 144F +- 1F for 60 minutes, then I cook them at 154F for 10 minutes. This creates an egg with a yolk that has a hollandaise type consistency with an egg white that is just starting to firm up.

Prior to cooking, I soak my eggs in a bowl of hot tap water in the sink with the water spigot at a steady stream for 30 minutes. This raises the eggs from refrigerator temperatures to something closer to room temperature. Certainly you could just leave the eggs out for a few hours to accomplish the same thing or you could simply cook them longer at 144F.

A good rule of thumb is that for a 7qt crock pot half full of water and temperature stable, each egg addition will drop the water temperature by about 1F. So a dozen eggs will drop the temperature by about 12F. So to get to my 144F target, I start with 156F water, or perhaps just below this. To help regulate the temperatures, if you don't have a temperature controller you can alternate adding small amounts of boiling or cooler water. I use a Sous Vide Magic controller, so it's just a matter of setting the temp and forgetting it for 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes at 144F, I raise the temperature to 154F by adding between 1-2 cups of boiling water until the temperature stabilizes to 154F, then set my timer for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the eggs go in an ice bath to arrest the cooking. At this point the eggs go into the refrigerator for storage and will keep for up to a week. Eggs are commercially pasteurized in the shell at no more than 140F for less time, so eggs prepared this way will be fully cooked and safe to eat even though the yolks and whites will not be very firm. The yolks should be perfect and the whites still may be a bit runny. For my tastes the eggs are a bit al dente at this point, but the idea is that by the time you heat the eggs up to serving temperature, they will be perfect.

To finish them off I crack one or two eggs in a dessert cup, season, and then microwave for 15-30 seconds, depending on how firm you want the whites. This warms up the eggs to serving temperatures without overcooking them.

Serving options are endless. You can eat them out of the bowl by themselves, put them on a piece of toast or English muffin, serve them over a warmed tortilla with salsa, etc.

[PADemD]

1. So are these eggs the consistency of 3-minute eggs?

Thirty minutes of running water? I would hate to have your water bill.

[Major Nikon]

2. No, not really. 3 minute eggs will have a different texture

A 3-minute egg, or any egg cooked in the shell for that matter, will cook from the outside in. With a 3-minute egg the whites on the outside will tend to be on the rubbery side (overcooked) while the yolks will still be mostly undercooked. The reason is because you are cooking them in 200F+ water for a short period of time. Certainly the egg whites don't get as rubbery as with a 5 or 7 minute egg, and especially a hard boiled egg, but the effect is still the same. With my method instead of cooking a short period of time at a high temperature, you're cooking at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. The eggs will be cooked all the way through, but by temperature control you are dictating the exact texture of both the yolks and the whites. Egg proteins will go through several different states between fully liquid and fully solid. The idea is to get the exact state you want from both the yolk and the white, which is a bit tricky because due to different proteins in each the different states don't happen at the same temperature. The yolks will firm up at slightly lower temperatures than the whites.

As far as water usage goes, the city charges me about $2 for 1,000 gals of water. Leaving the water at a trickle consumes about 1-2 gals in 30 minutes or less than 1/2 cent worth of water. You can leave the eggs out for a few hours and accomplish the same thing. I just don't like taking them directly out of the fridge and putting them in the water bath because it increases the cook time and increases the likelihood that the eggs will crack.

The following chart shows the different states of the egg proteins at different temperatures:

[Jenoch]

3. I have cooked eggs using this method

although I did not do the 154° bump.

Frankly, I use a different method for soft cooked eggs. I wrap an egg with lightweight aluminum foil, cover it with water in a large mug and microwave on high for six minutes. We have one of those egg toppers that slices the eggshell straight across and then eat with toast.

[Major Nikon]

4. There's all sorts of wonderful ways to cook eggs both in and out of the shell

I look at it from a perspective of what texture do I want both the yolks and the whites to be and how to devise a method to produce those results. From a pragmatic standpoint I also want to be able to store them al dente in such a state to finish once they are warmed up to serving temperatures. I normally go through about a dozen eggs per week. So I can make a dozen of these up all at once and then have them ready throughout the week. It also gives me a lot of versatility. I can use them as I would a poached egg. I can mix it into a custard and then warm it up. I can steam them or use them in soups or stews or with all sorts of sauces. I can even blend them into an instant custard or hollandaise.

[dem in texas]

5. Sounds like a lot of effort just to cook an egg

I don't care for eggs and seldom eat them. I lived in Alaska in the early 1960's and we had to eat cold storage eggs, as fresh eggs were seldom available especially in the winter. That experience is enough to turn anyone against eggs.

[cbayer]

6. Wow! This puts a whole new light on cooking an egg.

I wouldn't even know where to begin as I have no idea how I would measure these temperatures at all.

And running the water for 30 minutes is completely out of the question.

Here in Mexico they don't refrigerate the eggs, so I guess I could skip that part anyway.

I often see my kitchen as a laboratory, but this is way past what I do.

[Major Nikon]

7. You can take the knob off the lid of the crock pot and slide a probe thermometer through the hole

Temperature control can be achieved by selectively turning the crock pot on and off and/or adding boiling or cooler water. It's a bit harder to achieve precise temperature control this way so you may have to establish a window between 140-150F that you try to stay inside.