All about "sous vide" eggs

[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 .

EggHeatingTimes80C.pdf

[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.

[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 January 15, 2013 by nickrey (log)

[Bojana]

FeChef, looks yum! I was trying to figure this one out the last few days but did not do any cooking since I had a stomach bug. I just did research on how to do it. I prefer my yolks runnier so will try lower SV temp but other than that I will follow your approach, maybe even tonight!

[nickrey]

Try chilling the egg before crumbing. When you deep fry it will cook the outside well but only bring the egg up to eating temperature.

[FeChef]

My wife likes the custard like texture an egg has @ 146F. The fried eggs were just for fun and wasnt part of the main dish so i put very little effort into them. I did chill them after boiling , before adding to the SV though. If i was going to do them again I would probably boil for 5 minutes, chill, SV for 60 min @ 145F and chill overnight to peel the next day because they were a bit hard to peel while still warm.

[Todd in Chicago]

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!

Pedro, saw this listed as a "Public" favorite, looks great! I may give it a try this Sunday.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

Edited January 26, 2013 by heidih
Fix quote tags (log)

[nickrey]

My wife likes the custard like texture an egg has @ 146F. The fried eggs were just for fun and wasnt part of the main dish so i put very little effort into them. I did chill them after boiling , before adding to the SV though. If i was going to do them again I would probably boil for 5 minutes, chill, SV for 60 min @ 145F and chill overnight to peel the next day because they were a bit hard to peel while still warm.

One of our better Sydney chefs recommends soaking the eggs in a water and vinegar solution overnight. It thins the shell down and makes them very easy to peel the next day.