ChezUS ’s Profile

Recent Comments

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

We did an entire series on "how to eggs" back in July. From getting the basics down we moved the egg out of its normal breakfast role into dinner as well as methods were really fool proof, we tried and tried until, well, perfect! http://www.chezus.com/?s=incredible+egg&x=0&y=0

From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Chilaquiles Rojos

Chilaquiles is also a breakfast meal. We hate them every morning we were in Sayulita - they are absolutely wonderful. We were lucky to come across an authentic recipe, just like the ones we ate, and made it for dinner - http://www.chezus.com/2008/10/29/chilaquiles/. Really fantastic!

From Talk

How Long does it take Your Household to Finish a Loaf of Bread?

We don't do loaves we do baguettes ... it takes about 2 minutes, literally, I am not kidding!!! If I want a bite, I have to have it before bringing it into the house or hide it!

See more comments by ChezUS »

Recent Posts

From Photograzing

Pumpkin Pie

From Photograzing

Garlic, Food blog event

From Photograzing

Spanakopita

From Photograzing

Pho, Soup

See more posts by ChezUS »

Recent Favorites

From Photograzing

Quiche

See more favorites by ChezUS »

Recent Polls

ChezUS hasn't answered any polls yet.

Recent Quizzes

ChezUS hasn't taken any quizzes yet.

Recent Comments | Response to Comments

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

We did an entire series on "how to eggs" back in July. From getting the basics down we moved the egg out of its normal breakfast role into dinner as well as methods were really fool proof, we tried and tried until, well, perfect! http://www.chezus.com/?s=incredible+egg&x=0&y=0

From Recipes

Dinner Tonight: Chilaquiles Rojos

Chilaquiles is also a breakfast meal. We hate them every morning we were in Sayulita - they are absolutely wonderful. We were lucky to come across an authentic recipe, just like the ones we ate, and made it for dinner - http://www.chezus.com/2008/10/29/chilaquiles/. Really fantastic!

From Talk

How Long does it take Your Household to Finish a Loaf of Bread?

We don't do loaves we do baguettes ... it takes about 2 minutes, literally, I am not kidding!!! If I want a bite, I have to have it before bringing it into the house or hide it!

From Talk

Food Blogs?

Here is another one! www.chezus.com

From Talk

Eating Well and Cheaply: Any More Ideas Out There?

We have been writing a recession/depression proof dinner series all week. It is all about eating well, organically, and as local/sustainable as possible for under $100 a week (we are in the Bay Area) and by shopping at Whole Foods. It is going so well, that we are going to try another week with a different twist!

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

@ScoutinSpokane - sounds like something that might be good for the toaster oven.

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

I adore soft boiled eggs!! I could eat 10 at a time for sure!

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

Kenji,

The heat transfer rate/area = (coefficient of thermal conductivity)*(T_bath-T_egg)/distance

The equation is the same regardless of the medium. The dependence on the medium comes from the thermal conductivity coefficient.

Also, I agree with you that we are the only two involved in this conversation right now :)

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

I may have missed it, but I didn't see any comments about baking "hard boiled" eggs. I didn't think it would work when I saw the article, but just set the raw eggs on middle rack of a cold oven, (they recommend a little foil on the bottom of the oven in case one is cracked and breaks - never had it happen) set oven temp to 325, set timer to 30 min., when timer goes off, drop in very cold water. I've done it several times, worked perfect everytime. Tried pulling some out at 25 min., yolks were not completely set good enough for devilled eggs, but perfect for eating with a little salt and pepper. One complaint about this method is wasting electricity just for a few eggs. I had my potatoes wrapped in foil, some bread rolls rising, and some jalepeno poppers that I bake as an appetizer ready to go in at appropriate times once full temp was reached. Egg salad sandwiches, potato salad, some appetizers, and probably hashbrowns for breakfast in my future. What energy waste?

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

@pookay

p.s. All of this is starting to remind me why thermodynamics was my second least favorite class in college :)

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

@pookay - yes, you're right. I jumped the gun in my response there. I stand corrected.

But at the risk of putting my foot in my mouth again, I'm going to ask you another question: my immediate reaction is that your statement that the rate of heating is inversely proportional to the distance is not quite accurate, because it does not take into account the heat transfer coefficient of the egg. In a vacuum, yes, the rate of heating is proportional to only the distance, but an egg has mass, and so there is a coefficient involved, and that coefficient is proportional to thickness of the egg that the heat has to pass through, so does that not turn the equation into an exponential one instead of a linear one?

And one more question: are we losing the other SEers here? :)

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

Kenji,
The contradition I pointed out still stands no matter what constants are involved since any constant divided by zero is still infinity.

The rate of heating per area is proportional to the temperature difference and inversely proportional to the distance (this actually means that in the instant right after the cool egg is put in the boiling water, the rate of heat transfer to the outer surface of the egg is infinite; note that this is not a paradox since an infinite rate times an infinitely small time interval is still a finite amount of heat). The temperature itself is not inversely proportional to the distance (or the square of the distance); solving the rate equation, the temperature approaches that of the boiling water exponentially fast with time so that if you wait long enough the whole egg will be the same temperature as the bath. The distance to the heat bath appears only in the exponent, so that the closer to the bath, the faster the temperature changes.

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

@Pookay
Thanks for the correction, although I think the original statement is technically not inaccurate - the temperature I did say proportional, which is not to say that there are not constants involved (such as the temperature of the heat source) in the equation that takes care of the zero/infinity case.

Newton's law of cooling only states that the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference between the body and its surroundings - it doesn't have anything to do the temperature gradient formed within a solid mass. To solve that, I think it helps to think of the egg as something like a russian doll - a series of solids. From there you can see that because of Newton's law of cooling, the outer layers heat up at a much faster rate than the inner layers and that the differences in the rate at which the various layers are heating up is proportional to the distance, which means that the differences in the actual temperatures of the various layers are proportional to the inverse square of the distance.

@Attack monkey
I was doing it lid off - but like I said in the post, you can't control for all the variables that might affect cooking time - your house might be a few degrees cooler than mine, or your stove might have a few more btu's than mine. This article is meant more as a guide so that you know what aspects to consider when boiling an egg, and so that you understand the science behind it, and will thus be able to optimize cooking in your own particular environment. If that means putting on a lid to reduce the rate of heat loss, so be it!

- Kenji

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

@J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Awesome write-up, I disdain cooking but am a scientist at heart... First thing I did was cruise down to the kitchen to give it a shot. When doing HB (but also SB) are you putting/leaving the lid on? That significantly changes the rate of heat loss to the environment and can make a big change in the water temperature variation over time...?

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

As a scientist, I'm glad that someone is starting a series focusing on this aspect of cooking. However, I would like to point out an inconsistency:

"when a mass is exposed to heat for a given period of time, a temperature gradient will form within that mass, with the area closest to the heat source being hottest, and the area furthest from the heat source being coolest. With very few exceptions, the temperature of a given spot in the food is proportional to the inverse square of its distance from the surface exposed to the heat source."

If this were true, since the distance from the heat source at the surface of the egg is zero, this would imply that the surface of the egg has infinite temperature. I think you mean to say that the RATE of heat conduction depends on the distance from the heat source (as well as the temperature difference). Also, the rate of heat conduction is proportional to the inverse of the distance from the source, NOT the inverse squared (Newton's law of cooling).

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

I love the scientific approach to the art of boiling an egg. However, I am surprised the author did not mention the temperature of the egg going into the water. Were his eggs right out of the refrigerator (I don't thing so) or were they at room temperature? This is an important consideration and I am surprised that it wasn't mentioned!

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

I will beg to differ on the instructions given here.

You *can* have more control and reduce the variables involved in cooking your eggs. First of all, starting with cold eggs right out of the fridge is a mistake. You are maximizing the temperature difference between the egg's starting temperature and its final temperature. You will have much more control if you warm the eggs first. I place them in a bath of hot tap water for 10 minutes while I heat my water.

Secondly, I place the eggs directly into boiling water. The reason I put the eggs directly into boiling water is that waiting for a boil is a "soft target". What you consider a boil or a simmer could be as much as a minute different from someone else.

Lastly, I stop the cooking after a prescribed period of time by pouring off most of the hot water and replacing it with water and ice.

In summary: 1) I reduce the temperature change that will be required from the starting point of the egg to the end point of the process by warming the eggs up. 2) I avoid soft milestones by placing the eggs directly into boiling water at the beginning of the cooking process. 3) I stop the cooking (and improve the peel of the egg) by using an ice wash at the end.

BTW, if you want hot eggs, pull them out after only 10 or 15 seconds. The ice water will have already improved the peel by cooling the membrane and surface of the egg without cooling the inside of the egg. You can even peel the egg most of the time before the heat rebounds and makes the egg too hot to hold. A neat trick!

From Serious Eats

The Food Lab: Perfect Boiled Eggs

I've been doing it the way that Sara Moulton mentioned on her show many years ago - put the eggs in a saucepan covered with water. Bring it to a boil, not a hard boil. Turn off heat. Cover and let sit on a cold burner for a specific amount of time (I think she said 13 minutes but I do it for 16 minutes).

Remove carefully. Crack. Peel.

I find that if I crack them a bit and then refrigerate for awhile, they peel much easier.

So I am not really boiling per-say. This way I never over-boil, I never get a green line around the yolk, and I don't get that horrid sulphur smell you get from over boiling. Works well every time for me.

From Talk

Eating Well and Cheaply: Any More Ideas Out There?


I'm sorry, but i'm a few weeks away from being 80 years old and I'm not going to skimp on food. There are a few good things in life and one of them is fine food (another, wine -- another story) I really enjoy planning and cooking great meals, savoring every bite. Last night we had my son and his wife over for dinner so at eight in the morning I'm in the kitchen making a roux for gumbo. Most of the ingredients for seafood gumbo don't come cheap, but if you want it to taste good, use the best. Dave

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

Thank you for participating, and congratulations to our winners:

ky2here
malecki
lisasav5
jennusf
ellephant

Winners have been notified by email and also appear on our Contest Winners page.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

apple crisp. peach cobbler. berry buckle several of my favoriters I love to cook and bake but more inportant I love to eat

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

I had already commented and was reading some of the others when I remembered another favorite of mine. I don't know if any of you will have tried it, but I love "Wojapi". It's a traditional Sioux kind-of a fruit pudding. In the old days they used to use dried berries, especially chokecherries, but now we make it with fresh or frozen berries, any kind. I love to make it and everyone loves to eat it!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

I love my mom's rhubarb crisp! It's my absolute favorite dessert.

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

I just love a cobbler! It would be hard to pick a favorite, though it would probably be a struggle between Blackberry and Peach! i've never had it before, but Strawberry Cobbler would be to die for!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

Anything having to do with cherries is good. Let's go with Black Forest Cake! Chocolate and cherries. Oh, yeah!

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

I can't pick one, apple pie, blueberry crisp, lots of chocolate covered fruit and fruit with cream to name a few

From Serious Eats

Cook the Book: 'Rustic Fruit Desserts'

Lemon Meringue Pie is my favorite. garrettsambo@aol.com

Recent Posts

From Photograzing

Pumpkin Pie

From Photograzing

Garlic, Food blog event

From Photograzing

Spanakopita

From Photograzing

Pho, Soup

From Photograzing

Fresh Pasta

From Photograzing

Fig Tart

From Photograzing

Ravioli

From Photograzing

macarons

From Photograzing

Peas with Chorizo

From Photograzing

Chicken Salad

From Photograzing

Salad

From Photograzing

Brownies

From Photograzing

Madeleine

From Photograzing

Spaghetti

From Photograzing

Dobos Torte

From Photograzing

Pasta

From Photograzing

Figs

From Photograzing

Paella

From Photograzing

Cucumber Salad

From Photograzing

Potato Chips

From Photograzing

Summer Salads

From Photograzing

Chicken Tenders

From Photograzing

Tacos

From Photograzing

Pasta

From Photograzing

Vanilla Ice Cream

Recent Favorites

From Photograzing

Quiche

Polls

ChezUS hasn't answered any polls yet.

Quizzes

ChezUS hasn't taken any quizzes yet.

About ChezUS

Website: http://www.chezus.com

Location: San Francisco

About:

Favorite foods:

Last bite on earth: