160 replies to this topic

[vengroff]

Ok, you guys are right. I should test this before making a blanket statement. I've never seriously looked for a bagging solution to cracking because it is not a problem I have ever had.

The one thing I do, however, is put a pin prick in the air bubble end of the egg. I've done this for years for boiled eggs, long before I ever used sous vide.

[rotuts]

pin-prick works but I stopped doing it for SV as when you cool the egg, that hot air has to contract a little and pull water inside

this might effect the opened egg ie more watery and maybe effect the pasteurization if kept for a while.

id like someone to pls try the warm up method

many thanks

[vengroff]

This thread has been fantastically educational on the subject of cooking eggs in water baths. It's the first place I learned about the fast-cook method, which is now my go to way of cooking eggs in a circulator. I cook in 77°C water to a core yolk temperature of 62°C. It gives me the combination of relatively firm whites and a spreadable jammy yolk in 14 minutes, plus or minus depending on the exact size of the egg.

I've summarized what I learned here and elsewhere about the fast-cook technique and what has been incorporated into the SousVide Dash app in a blog post and video. I hope it is useful and interesting to you.

[slkinsey]

What are some good techniques for getting the firmed-white style of SV eggs out of the shell?

[vengroff]

What are some good techniques for getting the firmed-white style of SV eggs out of the shell?

I cut the big end of the egg off then insert a spoon between the shell and the egg white. I then spin it around the egg to separate the white from the shell on all sides. From there it usually pours out pretty easily. If it doesn't, I crack the shell a little more until it does. The key is having a spoon that is as close to the profile of the egg as possible.

[PedroG]

Cracked eggs and messed up SV rig

Expansion of the air bubble is not the reason that makes eggs crack. Air is a poor heat conductor and will heat and expand slowly, increasing pressure slowly by about 25% while heating from 5°C (278K) to 75°C (348K); remember Amonton's law aka 2^nd Gay-Lussac's law. Cracks happen shortly after immersing the egg in hot water, not at the end of the cooking time. Egg shells may sometimes have uneven thickness, so the thinner parts will heat and expand faster than the thicker ones, leading to tension cracks. Pricking the blunt end of the egg may lead to microscopic relaxing cracks thus avoiding macroscopic tension cracks.

Should you need to clean a messed up SV rig, the "professional grill-cleaning-solution containing sodium hydroxide" I mentioned upthread is "Johnson Diversey D9 SUMA Grill heavy duty oven cleaner"; the link has been removed because it was no longer valid. Anyway, preventing a mess by bagging the eggs is easier than cleaning, and suspending the bag makes retrieval easier.

[pep.]

I just re-read this thread because I'm holding a sous-vide presentation next week at the Foodcamp Vienna (sorry, German only). I'll prepare some sous-vide meat and vegetables to reheat and show different the textures, but the main event will be SV eggs. Has anyone tried genuine onsen-tamago? What would be the best temperature to approximate the texture? 63.5°C? I'd prefer to do it without delta-T to not be time critical (I can pre-cook the eggs at home or start them a bit earlier than the session).

[mkayahara]

I would check out the Ideas in Food book; they've got great instructions for onsen-tamago.

[Baselerd]

I tried the "Oeufs en meurrette" recipe from the Modernist Cuisine a few weeks ago. It's supposed to be a liquid center egg with a fully gelled white. The technique they tell you to follow is to boil eggs for 3-4 minutes in the shell, then cook in a water bath @143 F. The trick was ensuring the initial boil step fully gelled the whites while keeping the yolk fully liquid. My conclusion is that this is nearly impossible. I was able to achieve a good enough consistency, but was never able to get it just perfect. Leave it to boil too long and some of the egg yolk will begin to solidify. Boil too quickly and the white will remain runny, which is far less appetizing to me than having some solid egg yolks. In either case, I'm convinced that its near-impossible to have a perfectly cooked liquid center egg unless you find an egg with whites of uniform thickness...

Edited by Baselerd, 28 September 2012 - 02:46 PM.

[Robert Jueneman]

See my blog at http://freshmealssol...&Itemid=100088.

The problem you are having, I believe, is probably due to your not chilling the egg immediately after boiling it. And unfortunately, this is one area where MC lets us down.

Try a three minute pre-boil directly from the fridge, then 63C for 125 minutes.

Then crack the egg with a egg-cutter.

Bob

[pep.]

I tried the "Oeufs en meurrette" recipe from the Modernist Cuisine a few weeks ago. It's supposed to be a liquid center egg with a fully gelled white. The technique they tell you to follow is to boil eggs for 3-4 minutes in the shell, then cook in a water bath @143 F. The trick was ensuring the initial boil step fully gelled the whites while keeping the yolk fully liquid. My conclusion is that this is nearly impossible. I was able to achieve a good enough consistency, but was never able to get it just perfect. Leave it to boil too long and some of the egg yolk will begin to solidify. Boil too quickly and the white will remain runny, which is far less appetizing to me than having some solid egg yolks. In either case, I'm convinced that its near-impossible to have a perfectly cooked liquid center egg unless you find an egg with whites of uniform thickness...

For my sous-vide demo today I did the 13 minutes at 75 °C eggs from Ideas in Food, which should work very well in oeufs en meurette. Of course those are also chilled in ice water and then reheated to 60 °C.

[Baselerd]

Yeah, I'll definitely try that next time (which may be a while with my schedule). Thanks for the tips Robert and pep.

[nickrey]

Tip from a cooking demo on the weekend. Add some vinegar to the ice when you chill the cooked eggs. This eats into the shell and makes them much easier to peel. No info on timings but worth an experiment.

[PedroG]

Comparing 16'/75°C eggs and 50'/64°C+3'/100°C eggs



I preferred the 16’/75°C (delta-T method) with its uniform soft gelled white, which is also easier to get out of the shell, just cracking sideways on the counter and sliding out, whereas the 50’/64°C-chill-boil with its overcooked cortex stuck to the shell, it had to be broken and spooned out.

Another advantage of the delta-T method: it's faster and simpler, and if anyone desires a second helping, you can serve him or her within a quarter of an hour.

[Robert Jueneman]

That's interesting, Pedro, and the photos are useful. And I can see the advantage if you are trying to serve the whole egg, e.g., on toast.

Sometimes, however, as with an egg yolk on asparagus, either with or without hollandaise, I only want the yolk, and so having the coagulated white stick to the shell is actually an advantage.

[rotuts]

I recall ChrisH on his blog (maybe) came up with a great idea: separate the yolks, add ( maybe ) some seasonings, place in a zip-lock bag and SV until the desired thickness of the sauce is reached, then cut a bit of a corner out when ready to serve and drizzle over you Asp.

Ive done this and it works great as Asp. sauce.

thanks ChrisH!

[ChefRobb]

I have been trying to infuse smells into my eggs sous vide. Let me explain. I was taught in school not to store eggs near garlic or other heavy scents as they may get picked up in the eggs.
I decided to do this intentionally to see if I could garlic scent eggs.

For my first test I cut a few slits on two large cloves of garlic and vacuumed them in a bag with two eggs and left overnight. The shells smelled of garlic but I could not percieve any garlic after frying the egg.

My next test (currently in progress) I cut the top off of a head of garlic and placed it, and 4 eggs in the marinade canister of my foodsaver and pulled the vacuum. I am going to leave it in the fridge for at least 4 days. Ill post the results.

Has anyone tried anything similar?

[bhsimon]

I have been trying to infuse smells into my eggs sous vide. Let me explain. I was taught in school not to store eggs near garlic or other heavy scents as they may get picked up in the eggs.
I decided to do this intentionally to see if I could garlic scent eggs.

For my first test I cut a few slits on two large cloves of garlic and vacuumed them in a bag with two eggs and left overnight. The shells smelled of garlic but I could not percieve any garlic after frying the egg.

My next test (currently in progress) I cut the top off of a head of garlic and placed it, and 4 eggs in the marinade canister of my foodsaver and pulled the vacuum. I am going to leave it in the fridge for at least 4 days. Ill post the results.

Has anyone tried anything similar?

Around Christmas 2011, my cooking buddy purchased this beautiful truffle. The one, and only, truffle we've ever had. It weighed 52 grams. Of course, we wanted to get the best out of it.

We sealed the truffle in an air-tight container with a dozen eggs.

Three days later we made pasta with some of the eggs. The flavour was subtle, but discernible. We also used a little of the truffle directly, shaved into the cream in the sauce and, naturally, the truffle flavour was far more potent than the pasta on its own.

A few days later we used the rest of the eggs, scrambled, for breakfast. Oh boy, everybody could smell and taste the truffle and it was awesome. None of the truffle was actually consumed, but the smell and flavour had definitely permeated the eggs.

Perhaps this trick is common knowledge, but for us it was a first; and really exciting.

I can't see why the same technique wouldn't work for other ingredients. We didn't vacuum our container. Perhaps, with other ingredients, it is about the volume you use and the way it is prepared. For instance, would garlic be more effective if you crushed or grated it? Our eggs were sealed with the truffle for seven days when we used them for scrambled eggs, so I guess time is also a factor.

I'm really interested in the results of your experiment.

[PedroG]

Wanted: Egg cooking table for 80°C water bath

Bob's "Asparagus sunrise" seems to be a nice way to present Onsen Tamago.
Here's another way of serving "perfect eggs" with a gelled white:


Spinach is cooked with sauteed onions, finely chopped dried tomatoes and pignolias.
Four eggs of 138mm circumference from the fridge were placed in a ziploc bag suspended on a skewer and immersed in a 75°C water bath with forced circulation (FMM), pushing the zip under water to allow just enough water to enter the bag to displace the air. After 15 minutes, the bag with the eggs was placed in a pot with cold water to stop further cooking until the spinach was plated, then the eggs were cracked sideways on the counter and easily slided onto the spinach.

For me, the eggs were perfect; SWAMBO would like the whites set a bit more, but not rubbery. Maybe this could be achieved by cooking in 80°C water instead of 75°C? Unfortunately I am not a proud owner of an iPhone. Maybe someone with an iPhone could use Vengroff's app to publish a table like Douglas' table but for an 80°C water bath? I guess a few other Windows-bound guys like me would be deeply grateful. Thanks in advance!

[DouglasBaldwin]

Or, I could generate and post a new table .

Attached Files

•  EggHeatingTimes80C.pdf   12.62K   129 downloads

[PedroG]

Thanks a lot, Douglas! You are at cyberspeed!

[ScottyBoy]

64C for 25 minutes soft sets a quail egg for my amuse bouche tonight. Surprisingly easy to shell and handle.



I put a little dot so it looks like Pac Man

[nickrey]

Love the Pacman do they eat charge ups of black pudding slices?

Tip from a cooking demo on the weekend. Add some vinegar to the ice when you chill the cooked eggs. This eats into the shell and makes them much easier to peel. No info on timings but worth an experiment.

I did this the other day. Cooked some eggs sous vide, placed in 500ml of water with 50ml of vinegar, stored overnight in the fridge. The following morning, the shells had been significantly thinned and were extremely easy to peel off.

[PedroG]

Wanted: Egg cooking table for 80°C water bath

Bob's "Asparagus sunrise" seems to be a nice way to present Onsen Tamago.
Here's another way of serving "perfect eggs" with a gelled white:


Spinach is cooked with sauteed onions, finely chopped dried tomatoes and pignolias.
Four eggs of 138mm circumference from the fridge were placed in a ziploc bag suspended on a skewer and immersed in a 75°C water bath with forced circulation (FMM), pushing the zip under water to allow just enough water to enter the bag to displace the air. After 15 minutes, the bag with the eggs was placed in a pot with cold water to stop further cooking until the spinach was plated, then the eggs were cracked sideways on the counter and easily slided onto the spinach.

For me, the eggs were perfect; SWAMBO would like the whites set a bit more, but not rubbery. Maybe this could be achieved by cooking in 80°C water instead of 75°C? Unfortunately I am not a proud owner of an iPhone. Maybe someone with an iPhone could use Vengroff's app to publish a table like Douglas' table but for an 80°C water bath? I guess a few other Windows-bound guys like me would be deeply grateful. Thanks in advance!

Or, I could generate and post a new table .
Attached Files
EggHeatingTimes80C.pdf 12.62K

My results with 138-142mm dia eggs in 80°C for 13'30" were a bit disappointing: The outer part of the white was completely set, the inner part was a soft gel, and the yolk was OK with a concistency like honey. In contrast to 75°C eggs, they did not easily slide out of the shell but had to be spooned out. This could be achieved faster and easier with an automatic egg cooker. I'll return to 75°C eggs, maybe try 76°C or 77°C.

[scubadoo97]

I followed a guide that suggested 63C/2'5" for the perfect egg. Not pleased, the whites were a bit runny and the yolk gelatinized

[PedroG]

Did you really mean two minutes and five seconds? Or rather two hours and five minutes? 63°C results in an Onsen egg, meaning the yolk is served and the white is discarded or otherwise disposed of.
According to Vega, César and Mercadé-Prieto, Ruben. 2011. Culinary Biophysics: on the Nature of the 6X°C Egg. Food Biophysics. 12. January 2011, vol.6, p.152-159, www.springerlink.com/content/68q3377u5050031h/fulltext.pdf, 63°C / 2 hours will result in a yolk consistency between cookie icing and Marmite^®.

[scubadoo97]

2 hours and 5 min. The website I looked at said for the "perfect egg" 63*C for 125 min. Way too long since the yolk was gelatinized more than I would like I didn't measure circumfrence. Not exactly sure where at the skinniest part to mearure. They were large eggs.

I'll take your advice Pedro and try the 75C/15' egg and get my ' and " correct next time.

[EnriqueB]

According to Vega, César and Mercadé-Prieto, Ruben. 2011. Culinary Biophysics: on the Nature of the 6X°C Egg. Food Biophysics. 12. January 2011, vol.6, p.152-159, www.springerlink.com/content/68q3377u5050031h/fulltext.pdf, 63°C / 2 hours will result in a yolk consistency between cookie icing and Marmite^®.

Pedro, the full text is no longer available for download on the site. I would be grateful if you downloaded a copy you can share...

[FeChef]

Deep fried chipotle panko encrusted egg. Boiled 3 minutes SV 146F 60 minutes, deep fried 30 seconds.

Attached Images

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[nickrey]

Did you really mean two minutes and five seconds? Or rather two hours and five minutes? 63°C results in an Onsen egg, meaning the yolk is served and the white is discarded or otherwise disposed of.
According to Vega, César and Mercadé-Prieto, Ruben. 2011. Culinary Biophysics: on the Nature of the 6X°C Egg. Food Biophysics. 12. January 2011, vol.6, p.152-159, www.springerlink.com/content/68q3377u5050031h/fulltext.pdf, 63°C / 2 hours will result in a yolk consistency between cookie icing and Marmite^®.

Discarding the white is not something I'd previously seen associated with an Onsen egg. I know some chefs do this (eg. Rene Redzipi) for serving but as far as I know the traditional Onsen egg is served in toto. Can anyone with experience of these eggs in Japan clarify this for me?

Edited by nickrey, 15 January 2013 - 12:22 AM.