In Search of The Perfectly Cooked Egg – Sous Vide Style
As mentioned in my previous postings about sous vide cooking, my own adventures and exploration of sous vide started with the noble egg. Eggs are a wonderful natural food, and for those of you interested in the specifics of an egg’s composition, characteristics, and cooking, I again have to recommend Harold McGee’s “On Food and Cooking, 2nd Edition“, pages 68-117.
I still recall my first encounter with a sous vide cooked egged in a restaurant a couple of years ago, and after trying it I was in gastronomic heaven – the whites were like a soft, delicate custard, while the yolk was thick, rich, and gooey. I could not believe that I had simply settled for chewy, poorly textured, and mediocre eggs all my life. But if you don’t know about alternatives, you never know what you might be missing.
I personally am a huge fan of liquid yolks, and prefer my traditional eggs over easy or poached, and so my first sous vide cooking foray was to make the perfect soft-boiled egg.
McGee explains that egg whites and the yolk are composed of a variety of different proteins, all of which coagulate (solidify) at different temperatures, with the proteins in the egg whites thickening at higher temperatures than the egg yolks. He indicates that egg yolks tend to thicken at around 150°F / 65°C, and the various proteins in egg whites thicken at temperatures ranging from 145°F / 63°C to 180°F / 80°C.
Experiment #1 – Eggs au Naturel @ 64°C – Failed
My first attempt involved just putting the eggs in a water-bath at 64°C to get still runny but nearly solid yolks. Turns out it was a bad idea to put the eggs in the water directly, as they cracked slightly from both the temperature and from bouncing around as a result of the current caused by the immersion circulator, gumming the immersion circulator up with wisps of egg white as a result. I managed to get it clean, but it provided a great first lesson about cooking in a water bath – make sure that your ingredients are sealed away from the water to ensure the water remains clean and pure.
Experiment #2 – Eggs Sous Vide @ 64°C – Better
For the next experiment in cooking eggs sous vide, I actually used sous vide – I vacuum sealed the eggs to prevent them from cracking into the water bath and gumming up the works.
A Multivac vacuum sealer with a pouch with two raw chicken eggs
Here too I learned something. Normal sized eggs are less likely to crack when you vacuum seal them into a bag than bigger eggs. I assume that’s because big eggs are likelier to have thinner shells. I learned my lesson quickly, and only cracked one egg out of the dozen or so I used during my experiments.
Two vacuum sealed raw eggs in a Multivac vacuum sealer
One of the interesting things about cooking in a low-temperature water bath is that for most things, as long as your temperature is within a proper range for the thing you’re cooking and you have reached the point where the food has reached the target temperature throughout, you can cook the item for a wide range of time and still achieve the same result. Thus, the result of cooking an egg at 64°C for an hour is not hugely different from cooking it for three hours or five hours. The same applies to many meats in my experience.
Putting the vacuum sealed eggs in the water bath
With that in mind, I cooked my sous vide eggs at 64°C for around two hours. When I took them out of the bath and cracked them open, I found the yolks were unfortunately a bit more solid than I would like, but the whites had that wonderful light custard texture. The rest of the family agreed the yolk was too firm, and found the whites a bit runny.
A Sous Vide cooked egg at 64°C with a barely solid yolk and creamy whites
Experiment #3 – Eggs Sous Vide @ 63°C – Perfect Yolks
Undeterred, I sealed up some more eggs and cooked them for a couple of hours at a slightly lower temperature – 63°C. The result was the whites were a wee bit runnier, but still like a delicate custard, and the egg yolks were perfectly cooked – gooey and rich but fully cooked. However, the rest of the family was still not wild about the consistency of the egg whites.
A Sous Vide cooked egg with a thick and gooey yolk and creamy whites - cooked at 63 degrees Celsius
The yolk of the 63 degree Sous Vide cooked egg - rich and thick
Experiment #4 – Long-cooked Eggs @ 70°C
As I was curious about the effect of long cooking of eggs to see whether time really doesn’t make a difference, I also cooked some eggs at 70°C for about 10 hours while I was experimenting with cooking pork ribs in the water bath at the same time.
The yolk was firm, but creamy, and the whites less runny but still delicate. This inspired the next and final (for now) experiment.
Experiment #5 – Separately cooking the whites and yolks
For the final egg sous vide experiment, I took eight eggs and separated the whites and yolks into two cooking-safe bowls. While I am certainly capable of separating whites and yolks using just the egg shell itself, I find I am more productive with a dedicated separating device as pictured below. Plus, it’s cute. Trick to using it properly is to slide the egg innards into the device instead of dropping the egg insides onto the device, as the drop creates enough force that the egg yolk membrane might burst.
Jake's way to separate egg yolks and whites
Eight eggs - separated into whites and yolks
Once I was done with separating the eggs, I vacuum sealed each bowl. Another two lessons learned here: First, use bowls or jars that leave about one-third of the top empty – do not fill them to the rim; and second, don’t seal to maximum vacuum – 85-90% vacuum (or 150-100 millibar or so) should be sufficient. Not having known these things, I found my whites and yolks sucked a bit out of the containers during the vacuum sealing process, which in turn burst a couple of the yolks. Fortunately burst yolks still taste good.
The whites and yolks after being vacuum sealed - note that a couple of yolks burst
Both were cooked for about an hour at 63°C (to cook the yolks just right). The yolks were then removed along with enough water to keep them warm while the whites got cooked for another hour at 70°C.
Starting the eggs in a water bath - both at 63C, and then the whites for a while longer at 70C
Result? The yolks were great, of course, and the whites far less runny – just like when I long-cooked the whole eggs, but still custard-like, and most importantly, more to my family’s liking.
Meanwhile, the eggs have been unbagged - creamy rich yolks, and custardy whites
However, when we are next up for another egg sous vide experiment, we may try the whites at somewhat higher temperatures to see if that makes a difference, since coagulation of some of the egg white proteins is not complete until around 80°C.
January 21st, 2010 at 09:47
I disagree, I preferred the yolk in the 64 degree water, where it is firm yet like butter. I remember the 70 degree for ten hours produced the best whites.
January 21st, 2010 at 14:42
So you served the yolks separately in the last method? Or did you devise a way to keep the yolks warm while the whites finished?
I suppose a restaurant could have two units and assemble eggs upon demand….
January 21st, 2010 at 15:21
Good question, Rebecca! In the last method we served the whites and yolks separately, but then combined them in our own bowls to eat. If some of the yolks had not burst during the vacuum sealing we could probably have created something that looked much like a regular cooked egg, but more tender, of course.
September 9th, 2010 at 21:32
[...] far in the competition? Was I alone in thinking he was never going to pull off 80 perfectly cooked 63-degree eggs, and yet, he [...]
May 14th, 2011 at 18:34
How do you cook an egg for a chef who will judge all your cooking skills by this one dish?…
Put the egg in a water bath at 64 celsius; leave it there for a few hours. Remove the shell and serve with salt and pepper. At that temperature, some of the proteins in the egg will cook and others will not, resulting in a unique texture and taste. The…
May 17th, 2011 at 14:09
I don’t own a sous vide cooker, but i do make onsen tamago in a crock pot (my temperatures aren’t as exact, obviously, but i’ve come up with a method that gives me pretty consistent results).
That said, vacuum sealing everything for a sous vide/immersion cooker can get cumbersome and expensive. Since eggs aren’t water-shy, it also shouldn’t be necessary. I’d recommend trying to put some eggs in a ziplock bag, and add enough water to the bag that you needn’t worry about air pockets. Then put the ziplock bag in the immersion cooker. The water in the ziplock bag will take a while to get up to temperature, which will keep the eggs from cracking due to heat, and the bag will keep the current from banging them into each other. I expect that, with the extra water mass, you’ll need to add some cooking time.
May 27th, 2011 at 18:56
Great suggestion! I will try that out shortly!
Jake
June 1st, 2011 at 13:21
Ari,
Your solution worked brilliantly. We just enjoyed a nice batch of 63C eggs as a result! And a clean immersion circulator as well.
Jake
October 4th, 2011 at 08:02
[...] antes de cocinar y cocidas en agua hirviendo durante un corto periodo de tiempo. De acuerdo con este experimento , cocinar los huevos a diferentes temperaturas ligeramente en un baño de agua parece marcar la [...]
October 4th, 2011 at 08:16
[...] coque avant la cuisson et cuits à l’eau frémissante pendant un court laps de temps. Selon cette expérience , la cuisson des œufs à différentes températures légèrement dans un bain d’eau semble [...]
October 5th, 2011 at 08:05
[...] aus der Schale vor dem Kochen entfernt und gekocht in siedendem Wasser für eine kurze Zeit. Nach diesem Versuch , Kochen Eier in leicht unterschiedlichen Temperaturen in einem Wasserbad scheint Unterschied [...]
October 5th, 2011 at 10:26
[...] dalla shell prima della cottura e cotti in acqua bollente per un breve lasso di tempo. Secondo questo esperimento , cucinare le uova al variare della temperatura leggermente in un bagno d’acqua sembra fare [...]
October 13th, 2011 at 17:21
[...] he and Davies are more interested in perfecting the custardy 63-degree egg, one of several new dishes on the [...]
November 3rd, 2011 at 20:25
[...] here?” Oh man, how could I explain that I made an immersion cooker so that I can slowly cook eggs to 63 degrees celsius over the course of 3 hours to obtain the perfect cooked egg texture? Or that I was on the search [...]
December 12th, 2011 at 11:31
[...] one of the most widely cited articles on how to cook the perfect egg via sous vide techniques (see http://www.foodiemoment.com/2010/01/21/in-search-of-the-perfectly-cooked-egg-sous-vide-style/ ). When I started my sous vide cooking efforts back in late 2009, I opted to purchase an immersion [...]
January 2nd, 2012 at 01:09
The yolk/white solution I’ve seen most often is to cook sous-vide for the desired yolk consistency, then put the eggs in boiling water for a minute to two to harden the whites. Much easier than separating them I think!
January 22nd, 2012 at 15:04
I spent a lot of time on this too – going through different timings and temperatures – but couldn’t find an egg that delighted me. http://north19.co.uk/sous-vide-poached-egg/ Wasn’t quite prepared to go as far as separating eggs and whites in separate bags, but may try the souffle sous vide egg on serious eats.
Next step is to try a perfectly custardy sous vide ‘scrambled egg’. I suspect there might be more of an interesting texture game here as people are more accepting of liquid (from the whites) in scrambled eggs.
February 22nd, 2012 at 06:09
Hi,
This is a fascinating article! I was wondering, have you tried adding anything to the sous vide bag like bacon before sealing? Since egg shells have tiny holes I was wondering if some of the flavour of the bacon would seep into the egg giving it a distinct flavour. Might get my machine out this weekend and give it a go.
February 22nd, 2012 at 21:31
Jason,
Let us know how your experiments work out.
Jake
March 29th, 2013 at 09:55
Hi!
I love immersion cooking, especially because I can cook eggs with such control.
Your article, in my opinion was well thought out…a thorought and controlled experiment! All this time, I have been merely putting the hole egg right into the water bath without first bagging them. What differences in results have you found with and without the bag?
May 20th, 2013 at 15:16
[...] Chef Frederik De Pue, a Belgian by birth, makes frequent changes to the menu, but makes use of sous vide techniques for many items — most notably a smoked Caesar salad with a 63-degree egg. [...]
June 18th, 2013 at 18:32
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