The trendy egg that will change everything you had previously tried
Don’t misunderstand.
My point is not to debate about the perfect way to cook soft, medium or
hard boiled eggs*. No. No soft, medium or hard boiled eggs here, but something
different, called the œuf parfait (literally, the perfect egg), aka the “egg
65 degrees” (understand Celsius) or the “egg at the just temperature”. You may
have guessed that this “just” temperature is first of all a low temperature, 65 Celsius
being equivalent to 149 Fahrenheit. This egg was invented, or it would be more
appropriate to say conceptualized by the French physico-chemist Hervé This (pronounced
“Tiss”). As a matter of fact, cooking eggs at low temperature is not something new
at all: The traditional Japanese onsen tamago (literally, eggs cooked in
warm springs) or the hamine eggs cooked for 6 hours in embers by the
Jewish Turkish and Greek communities before Shabbat fall in the same philosophy
of cooking, so to say… But what Hervé This did, and popularized in cooperation with
his friend, the legendary 3-star chef Pierre Gagnaire, was to precise the
details of a low temperature egg cooking modern technique : the
temperature, the time and the process of cooking.
This’s reasoning was
based on a very pedestrian finding: egg white and egg yolk do not have the same
coagulation temperature. Whereas the white starts to coagulate at 62 Celsius (i.e.
144 Fahrenheit), the yolk coagulates from 68 C (155 F). Since most people like
their eggs, except those (me as a kid) who swallow them, with the white cooked
and the yolk still runny, This leverages this difference of 11 degrees
Fahrenheit to cook his perfect egg: he cooked his eggs at the exact median
temperature between 62 C and 68 C, i.e. 65 C (or 149 F
Fahrenheit). The perfect egg was born…
To describe it is
difficult as it is different from everything known in the egg area. Of course,
it looks a bit like a shelled soft/medium boiled egg (see pictures), but the
texture and the sensation in mouth is totally different. The egg white is like
a trembling jelly without, of course, the sticky feeling of a jelly, and the
yolk, ah!!! the yolk, is creamy, syrupy, silky… The best comparison I can find
to describe its texture is to compare it to (liquid) honey, a savory honey… and
a killer!!!
The perfect egg is
so exceptional, and versatile, as it has become very trendy, in upper class
restaurants (its detractors, there are some, say it is a way to gain a lot of
money on a cheap product) and in the French cooking shows (every French Top
Chef season sees its own œuf parfait). Many French and European chefs feature
it on their carte, associating it with a huge variety of different products,
salad, asparagus, mushrooms, pasta, caviar… in dishes revisiting the great
classics : a la carbonara, a la Milanese, etc. Personally, I tried it here
with a ratatouille (those who know me won’t be surprised), either a hot ratatouille
as a main dish, or a cold ratatouille as an amuse-bouche. Delicious in both
cases, but the amuse-bouche, with its contrast between the cold ratatouille and the
hot silky egg was a blast. It is also fantastic just on a toasted slice of
bread, with just fleur de sel, piment d’Espelette, chive…
However, it is not
complicated to cook it. After a couple of tries, I reached a quite decent
result although I don’t have the precision equipment required. In fact, there
are three “serious” techniques, and some more anecdotal**:
- A bain-marie at the constant temperature of 149 F for 45 minutes
- In a preheated “normal” or steaming oven at 149 F for 60 to 65 minutes
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| Steaming oven - 55 minutes |
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| Steaming oven - 60 minutes |
 |
| Steaming oven - 65 minutes |
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| "Normal" oven - 75 minutes |
In all cases, the
temperature is the same, the famous 65 Celsius or 149 Fahrenheit.
This claims that the cooking time doesn’t matter. Some others say it does
matter, and I am one of them. I didn’t try the bain-marie technique as I am not
adequately equipped, but those owning a sous-vide equipment could try it. But I
made the test in my own oven, a countertop convection oven with several
steaming functionalities, and I can tell that each marginal minute makes a
difference (see pictures). Based on those tests, I concluded that steaming the
eggs at 150 F (alas, my oven doesn’t allow 149 F) for 60 to 65
minutes has the better outcome. But this depends, first, on your own equipment,
and, second, on your own preferences…
* In fact, making perfect boiled eggs is
quite easy if you follow the 3-6-9 rule: 3 minutes for perfect soft boiled
eggs, 6 minutes for medium boiled eggs, and 9 minutes for hard boiled eggs in
boiling water… for an average size egg, to be adjusted for smaller or bigger
eggs. It is also essential, before plunging them in boiling water, to soak them
in tepid water to avoid a thermal shock.
** The anecdotal techniques consist in cooking the perfect eggs in a dishwasher or on a radiator. Notwithstanding the fact that I don't how to tune the exact temperature in those cases, I am not convinced, or put in another way, like searing a steak with an iron, this is nor my philosophy of cooking...
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