Scientists found out how to cook the perfect boiled egg. It will take you half an hour

Silvana Franco, a food writer and Telegraph contributor, tests the method to see if it works - Andrew Crowley

While getting the right consistency in both yolk and white is perhaps more of an art form, a team of Italian researchers say they have now found the perfect recipe according to science.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the Nature journal Communications Engineering, found this approach keeps both yolk and white at their perfect temperature for the full 32-minute cooking time.

By starting in boiling water and moving the egg between pans every two minutes, both parts are cooked perfectly, scientists say. Their analysis also found that these periodically cooked eggs have a better nutritional content, texture and taste than hard-boiled, soft-boiled and sous-vide eggs.

The technique has been such a success that some of the scientists have adopted it to cook eggs in their day-to-day lives.

Silvana Franco puts the 32-minute method to the test, concluding the result is ‘pretty special’ but ‘super tedious’ - Andrew Crowley

Dr Pellegrino Musto, the author of the study from the Italian National Research Council, said: “It has a creamy consistency. You don’t distinguish the two components (albumen and yolk) by the different texture. Of course, the taste is that of a well-cooked egg and, to me, it is pleasant to the palate and the tongue.”

Scientists purchased fresh hen eggs from a supermarket in Naples and kept them at room temperature before embarking on their study.

The team are experts in understanding how two materials that touch behave differently, and how to alter the conditions to change properties of each substance independently. Their previous work involved creating different types of layered foam products, and the same approach was applied to eggs.

“We are material scientists mainly working on polymers,” Dr Musto said. “The idea comes from one of us talking with a friend on fancy ways to cook eggs and he mentioned very complicated (and costly) methods developed by top chefs.”

The team used a computer system that models complex fluid dynamics to create a methodology for boiling an egg. The programme was informed that the white part, known as the albumen, cooks at 85C, while the yolk cooks at 65C.

The model suggested that switching the egg eight times from boiling water (100C) to lukewarm water (30C) would maintain these different temperatures and create the perfect yolk and albumen.

The scientists wrote in the paper: “We found that our cooking method leads to improved texture and nutritional content with respect to traditional shell-on egg cooking techniques. This peculiar thermal profile allows for optimal cooking of the egg in all its parts.”

Prof Emilia Di Lorenzo, the study’s lead author from the University of Naples Federico II, said: “We like to say that this egg gives you the ‘best of both worlds’.

“You have a fully set and white albumen, like the one of a hard-boiled egg, together with a perfectly creamy yolk, like the one of a sous-vide egg. As a consequence, yes, it definitely tastes good.

“Whenever we can we adopt this cooking technique, especially when we want to share this recipe with friends and family on special occasions. It is more time consuming than the average boiled egg, but it is definitely worth it: it tastes better, it is more nutritious and you get to share nice insights on the science behind cooking.”

A nutritional analysis of the cooked eggs found that periodically boiled eggs have more amino acids, which are associated with improved health outcomes. Polyphenols, a group of chemicals also linked to health, were higher in periodic eggs, too.

“Overall, these results strongly suggest that the periodic cooking method has a better advantage over conventional cooking methods in terms of nutritional content,” the authors wrote.

The scientific boiled eggs method has a resemblance to the hot-cold method for scrambled eggs preferred by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

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