I was recently involved in a discussion via twitter about boiled eggs. Regrettable, but true.
I thought my normal answer, 4 and a half minutes, would be enough. But when someone mentioned the effect of altitude, and the ‘structural integrity’ of soldiers, I was very soon out of my depth. I’m a chef, not a scientist.
So I google “effects of altitude on boiling eggs”. Also regrettable, but true.
Apparently, the boiling point of water changes depending on your distance from sea level, effecting cooking times. At the top of mount Everest, water will reach boiling point at 66 degrees Celsius, and eggs will hard boil at 35 minutes. (Assuming that the egg is at room temperature. Ironically, this formula doesn’t seem to take into account the fact that eggs at the top of mount Everest are very likely to be frozen). If I ever get to the top of Everest, however, I don’t think I’ll need this. For me, boiled eggs are a “made it out of bed, but not quite out of my pyjamas” food, they’re not a “made it to the top of Everest” type of thing. For me, that would be a Doner Kebab moment.
It begs the question, do we need to get so scientific when we talk about food?
I’ve always believed that great food comes from the finely balanced application of tradition, science and intuition. But as human beings our egos will have us push our own areas of expertise to the forefront – often to the stubborn exclusion of all others. This may make us feel good about ourselves, but it won’t make the food any better.
Traditionalists will refuse to accept any other way of doing things than what they know. There are those who believe cooking climaxed in Paris in 1938 with Laroussse Gastronomique, and that any deviation from classical methodology is heresy. While I am yet to meet anyone of Italian descent who doesn’t claim their their Nona’s gnocchi is not only the best in the world, but that anything else is total crap. There’s also the recipe pedants. Those that refuse to compromise – driving across the city to find some rare yet insignificant herb or spice, just because ‘the recipe said so’.
On the other hand, there are those that believe intuition in cooking is everything: the ‘touch – taste – feel – smell – sense’ approach. Such a crucial part of good cooking, yet used by itself fundamentally flawed. I’ve met so many cooks that claim “I never use a recipe – I just go with the flow”, as if this meant to be a good thing. I’m sure that there are builders that can build an entire house without using a tape measure. Impressive? Absolutely, but that doesn’t it make the house any better. An apprentice a few years ago told me that making gnochi at TAFE they were not told the ratio of potato to flour, but rather were taught how to do it by ‘feel’ (there are so many things wrong with this it requires its own separate rant). Suffice it to say, a gnocchi dough that ‘feels’ right to a 17 year old with virtually no dough experience, will generally ‘feel’ like you are swallowing a squash ball when you eat it. Assuming that we can’t get Nona to give the class, would it be too much to ask for them to learn the ‘feel’ AND the recipe. Covering all the bases is surely a better way to go.
Finally, to those of you that want to take food to the scientific level when it is simply not necessary: get your head out of the book, and you might notice that you’re overcooking your eggs!
Food should always be about the food, rather than the chef. It is about the destination, not the journey. When we get too carried away with how we got there, and which way is best, we are generally getting too carried away with ourselves. Let’s just concentrate on cooking it & eating it.
On that note – here it is.
Boiled eggs and soldiers
Ingredients
Eggs
Soldiers
A note on the ingredients
I always use free range eggs, and the fresher they are the better.
In almost all egg situations, room temperature is best. The main exception is when separating eggs, which is much easier when the eggs are cold. (I’m sure that there is a scientific explanation for this – but I don’t really care what it is)
Solidiers: if you’re like me, and have a 4 year old Vegan Ornithologist child who believes that eggs are for making baby chickens, then raspberry jam soldiers are also delicious.
Method
I love boiled eggs when you capture the exact point that the yolks are starting to congeal. They are runny, but just getting a tiny bit lumpy in places.
To do this, I boil the water first, and lower the (room temperature) eggs gently into the water with a slotted spoon. (I have read a lot of instructions that suggest starting in cold water, and then “noticing” when the water begins to boil & start timing from there – I don’t know who the hell are they kidding, but they obviously don’t have dogs / kids / mobile phones etc. I think it is much easier to let the water boil & then “notice” that you put them in the water.) I don’t have a stopwatch, so I use this.
I leave them there for 4 minutes 30 seconds. I am at 950m elevation (from my recent reading, at sea level this would be 4 minutes & 10 seconds).
Get them out of the water, put them in an egg cup (preferably something with some novelty value) and eat them.
Soldiers:
Toast your bread, lather it with butter, and cut them into strips.
Don’t scrimp on butter. To maintain ‘structural integrity’ simply toast the bread a little further than you would a normal piece of toast.
