The Impossible Perfection of the Soft-Boiled Egg

I get it. It’s only an egg, what is the big deal?

Julia Child devoted a whole chapter of Mastering the Art of French Cooking to the glorious egg. Often we hear that the mark of a good chef is in how they handle the simple egg. People who cannot cook usually say, “I can’t even boil an egg.” Well let me tell you, they are wrong, people who think they cannot cook are underestimating the art of boiling an egg.

Forget the boiled-to-death-can’t-really-go-wrong hard-boiled version that doesn’t really taste good at all except when mixed with generous amounts of fats or sauces. What we’re talking about here is the impossible perfection of the soft-boiled egg.

You see I have no problem with an egg once it is out of its shell. I can see and feel where it wants to go. I like to think of myself as an instinctual cook, adjusting as I go, capable of saving potential disasters with quick changes. I have not quite perfected them yet, but give me eggs out of their shell and I’ll give you omelettes, frittatas, fluffy pancakes, sunny-side ups, oh and I can whip you up a mean plate of scrambled eggs. Rich, soft, and creamy. Yet I have always felt the heat was on when it came to that small fragile shell, hiding the best part inside. The hidden egg and all its potential hidden disasters…

Which is why for my first adventure in The Fundamental Experimental series I am going to face the challenge head on. The idea behind this kitchen series is to investigate all the random questions I’ve had either during cooking or eating that I never took the time to properly look into. Some are more comparative questions such as, “what’s the difference between all these different expensive coloured salts?”, “different coloured peppers?” or “the whole range of vinegars?”. Some are more ingredient obsessed such as a mad love for cardamon or how to use fresh turmeric properly. And what about saffron and tamarind paste? Others are more skill related, “how to cook fish well or let’s start with how to clean it thoroughly”, especially on days where I’m totally destroying a perfectly good piece of Sole and thinking how it was so much easier when I was a vegetarian. A rejection of candy thermometers anyone? Yup, that’s me. When I see the need for one in a recipe I tend to run the other way. There are absolutely no logical reasons for it, it’s just the way it is.

Most of the answers to these questions are probably just a google search away, but that’s also my stubborn side, I have to try it myself to believe it and understand it.  So as I navigate my way around these questions and have fun trying to find some of the answers, I hope you will join me. Especially if you have a question we should look into together. I’m open to sharing experimental disasters.

Now back to those dreaded eggs.

There’s writer’s block, triple nerve blocks, back blocks, but I have more of a soft-boiled egg block. I am a faithful follower of baking recipes – measuring properly, setting the timer (or my iPhone), more or less following the cooling time in the fridge for pastry. Yet it is simply impossible for me to follow instructions when it comes to creating that perfect just-set centre of a soft-boiled egg. The white should be firm, the yolk barely there, not really runny, but creamy and smooth with a slight ooze, more like a semi-soft boiled egg. The egg I dream of as a topping for my avocado toast, to split open onto my bowl of donburi, to eat straight with a spoon and some salt and pepper when I’m alone.

So what stands in my way?

By the way, I finally learnt how to crack open mini quail eggs with a knife so that the yolk doesn’t break when you fry them and they were too cute not to share. We used to get them all the time when we were little and then somehow they disappeared from my diet. Think high cholesterol claims were to blame, but they are so yummy, am thinking of bringing them back into my kitchen. Especially on top of buttery toast.

Moooving on, die-hard procrastinator here as you can tell.

I have read countless articles on how to make the perfect boiled egg and there are mainly two techniques which are suggested. One with room temperature eggs lowered directly into boiled water and a more forgiving, fridge-cold eggs slowly boiled from cold water. Both require timing precisely.

To force myself to compare them I decided to try them three ways:

1. Room temperature egg, lowered into boiling water and simmered for 6 minutes

2. Fridge-cold egg, placed in cold water and allowed to boil for a time based on pure gut instinct

3. Fridge-cold egg, placed in cold water until boiling, then simmered for 4 minutes

You can see the results for yourself below.

1. Not bad, but slightly underdone for my taste

2. TOTAL disaster, practically raw

3. Closest to what I want, but slightly overdone

The thing is, I’ve done it from gut instinct before and it came out puuurfectly, but this time I was distracted and by the time I realised the water was boiling, I thought it had been boiling for longer than it had. Anyway, excuses, basically if you have to sit and watch an egg boil you will probably remove it too early out of sheer impatience.

The first option is out for me, because really who has the time to get eggs to room temperature? Usually when I want an egg I want it now and in the hot climate that we currently live in, our eggs tend to live in the fridge. Also isn’t that what all the fridge manufacturers are hinting at with their egg-shaped shelves right there for us to use? What else would we put there?

That leaves the third option, the easy straight-out-of-the-fridge-into-cold-water-avoid-cracking option. From this test it seems like 3 minutes would be the best for what I want to achieve. Maybe three and a half.

I ran them all under cold water once I removed them from the pan to avoid over-cooking, though option 3 was also the easiest to peel. Think we have a winner hands down, now all I have to do is stick to the timing. Easier said than done, easier said than done.

How about you? Are you a dedicated egg timer, an instinct gut-believer or have just plain given up?

p.s There is one exception to the “eggs out of shell are always easy” rule – poached eggs. Don’t even get me started …

Stay tuned for more from The Fundamental Experimental.