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If you believe that you have your egg boiling technique on a science, you still have the possibility that you have not prepared the “perfect” cooked egg.
Cooking an egg is flawlessly difficult because the egg or protein and egg yolk have different compositions, which means that they have to be cooked at different temperatures in order to achieve an ideal taste and consistency.
But now scientists say that they have officially broken the code with a technique known as a periodic cooking. This new method includes the change of eggs between hot and lukewarm water cycles to cook the egg whites and the egg yolk at the same time without separating them. This emerges from a new study published on February 6th in Journal Communications Engineering.
The periodic cooking not only produces the ideal texture and the ideal taste for both the protein and the egg yolk, but also helps the egg, the greatest amount of nutrients with proven health advantages compared to other popular methods such as hard boiling or sous video to receive the study, wrote the study authors.
“As a cook, this method makes sense,” said Micah Siva, a nutritionist and recipe author, who was not involved in San Francisco, who was not involved in the study. “People often forget that cooking is incredibly scientific … and the adaptation of the cooking temperature to the properties and structures of the proteins in the egg can improve the quality.”
The best thing about it? You don’t have to imagine it – you can cook periodically at home. Dr. Ernesto di Maio, the main author of the study, noticed that the experiment was not carried out with unusual laboratory equipment, but in his home kitchen. All you need are 32 minutes and a little patience.
Cooking process for the perfect cooked egg
In order to cook the ultimate cooked egg, the researchers could have rely on attempt and errors and test hundreds of eggs, said Di Maio, program manager of the Bachelor and Master material Engineering program at the Italian University of Naples Federico II.
Instead, the team developed mathematical models and simulations to predict how heat passes through the egg, which helped them identify the ideal cooking conditions for both protein and egg yolk. With these tools, DI Maio and his colleagues enter input factors such as water temperature and density to decide the time steps to change the eggs between hot and lukewarm water, he said.
To test periodic cooking, the team filled a kitchen pot with tap water and heated it to the desired temperature on the stove. The researchers placed a food thermometer both in the hot and in the lukewarm water to ensure temperatures consistent during the entire cooking process.
The team then cooked fresh shell shell eggs with four methods: hard-boiling, soft, sous video and the new periodic cooking technique. In total, Di Maio and his colleagues prepared 160 eggs with 40 eggs per cooking method.
The traditional methods served as control samples for comparing temperature profiles, texture and nutrient storage.
Hard-boiled eggs were cooked for 12 minutes, soft and sous-video eggs were prepared for an hour at 65 degrees Celsius (149 degrees Fahrenheit).
For the periodic method, scientists changed eggs in boiling water at 100 ° C (212 f) and lukewarm water at 30 ° C (86 f) for two minutes. This cycle was repeated for eight by 32 minutes.
While the traditional methods meant that the inner temperatures were constantly increased in the entire egg, the periodic method kept a constant egg yolk temperature of 67 ° C (152.6 f), whereby the protein reached the temperatures from 87 ° C to 100 ° C Hot water and 30 ° C to 55 ° C (86 f to 131 f) in lukewarm water.
This dynamic heat distribution enables both the protein and the egg yolk to reach its ideal textures and consistency, according to Di Maio.
While Siva found that periodic cooking was an interesting concept, she said that she would not take the time to cook an egg for 32 minutes.
“Most people have difficulty getting a meal on the table and are looking for abbreviations.
Comparison of the techniques
While the researchers were able to visualize some of the differences between the eggs, they also carried out a texture profile analysis and sensory analysis to measure different properties, including consistency, color, texture and taste.
The sensory analysis, which contains texture and taste, is objective, but provides detailed insights into the elements that people can expect when trying to cook.
Overall, the protein of the regularly cooked eggs had a texture that was the most similar, while the egg yolk was very similar to the sous video eggs, the researchers noticed.
Di Maio described the egg yolk of the regularly cooked eggs as an excellent balance between solid and liquid with a jelly -like consistency, while the egg whites were well adjusted without being too firm or transparent.
He shared some of the regularly cooked eggs with friends and family.
He said they were amazed at the contrast of the textures of the protein and egg yolk, which was not easily achieved with traditional methods.
If you decide to give a regular kitchen at home, you should be warned that eating raw or non -cooked eggs increases the risk of food diseases, especially if you have a weakened immune system or have certain diseases.
The researchers were also interested in examining the protein – the change in physical and chemical properties – to evaluate the mirrors of polyphenols and amino acids within the egg yolk, since these contain vital nutrients.
Interestingly, compared to other methods, the highest mirrors of polyphenols, chemical compounds that had received the highest polyphenols had been maintained that help prevent cell damage.
Foods that are rich in polyphenols have anti -inflammatory and antioxidant properties that have been proven that they can protect against several diseases and reduce the occurrence of prostate and breast cancer.
SIVA found that the nutrient composition changes with the periodic method, but eggs are still a large source of protein and healthy fats, regardless of the form of cooking.
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