Italian researchers revealed an innovative method for boiling the perfect egg, a technique they call periodic cooking that promises to revolutionize a task long considered simple yet deceptively challenging. The method was described in a study published in the journal Communications Engineering.
Dr. Pellegrino Musto, leading the study from the Italian National Research Council, explained that the yolk and white in chicken eggs cook at two different temperatures: the albumen cooks at 85 degrees Celsius, while the yolk cooks at 65 degrees Celsius. This temperature discrepancy has long posed a challenge to achieving the ideal texture in both parts of the egg simultaneously.
To address this, the researchers developed a method that alternates the egg between boiling water at 100 degrees Celsius and lukewarm water at 30 degrees Celsius. "This special temperature profile allows the optimal cooking of the egg in all its parts," the researchers claimed. The process involves transferring the egg between the two temperatures every two minutes for a total duration of 32 minutes.
The team applied fluid dynamics software to find the best cooking pattern for their periodic cooking method, performing computational fluid dynamics simulations during the cooking process. "To solve the problem, we decided to use the methods we develop for the study of materials and mathematically model the simultaneous cooking of two different materials," Musto noted.
Chemical analysis revealed that periodically cooked eggs contained a higher amount of nutrients, such as antioxidants called polyphenols, compared with eggs cooked by other methods, according to BBC News.
A panel of eight sensory experts evaluated the eggs cooked using the periodic cooking method, measuring flavor, odor, wetness, and other organoleptic properties. The experts confirmed that these eggs are superior in taste and texture to traditionally cooked ones.
"Perfection perhaps does not exist, but this method, which we have defined as periodic cooking, is the best devised to date for cooking, preserving the nutritional and organoleptic characteristics of both the yolk and the white at the same time," said Musto.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq