Soft-Boiled Egg

I'm a fan of the three-minute boiled egg, but it's not perfect. Because of the high temperature of cooking, at three minutes the exterior whites are cooked, but the inner layers of white are still barely cooked and jelly like, while the yolk remains cold. Wouldn't it be nice to have that firm outer white with a tender inner white and a yolk that is warm all the way through? Sous vide can help fix these minor imperfections and also make the soft-boiled egg process entirely foolproof.

For soft-boiling, I start by plunging the eggs into boiling water for a few moments in order to set the exterior. Next I chill them in an ice bath. Both of these steps will help to set the exterior of the egg while while minimizing sticking to the shell. Now all you have to do is cook them through in the water bath to the desired internal consistency.

Author

J. Kenji López-Alt

J. Kenji López-Alt is the Managing Culinary Director of Serious Eats, author of the James Beard Award-nominated column The Food Lab, and a columnist for Cooking Light. He lives in San Francisco. A New York native, Kenji cut his cooking chops the old-fashioned way by working his way up through the ranks of some of Boston's finest restaurants. With an education in science and engineering and as a former Senior Editor at Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, Kenji is fascinated by the ways in which understanding the science of every day cooking can help improve even simple foods. He earned a James Beard award for his first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, which he released in September 2016. It is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Prep Time: 00:05

Recipe Time: 00:45

Temperature Options:

Tender, gloppy yolk; opaque, tender, barely-set whites

145F / 62.8C

Soft, liquid yolk; ghost-white, barely-set whites (onsen tamago)

140F / 60C

Creamy yolk; opaque, tender, barely-set whites

145F / 62.8C

Tender, pudding-like yolk; opaque, tender, barely-set whites

145F / 62.8C

Ingredients

• 1-12 Eggs

Directions

1. Set your Precision Cooker to your preferred level of doneness, according to the time and temp chart provided, then press start to begin preheating. Do not drop the eggs in yet.
2. In a small pot, bring water to a boil on the stove.
3. Place eggs in the boiling water and let the eggs boil for 3 minutes, then drop them in an ice bath for 1 minute.
4. Take eggs out of the ice bath and place them directly in the water bath. Let the eggs cook for your set time.

Finishing Steps

1. After the eggs have cooked for your set time, use a slotted spoon to lift them out of the pot. Transfer the eggs to a bowl.
2. To peel the egg, gently tap it against a surface to create a small crack in the shell. From there, simply peel the shell as you would a hard-boiled egg. The white of the egg should be firm and cooked through.
3. Cut into the peeled egg to let the runny yellow spill out. Eat on top of toast or any other way you like your eggs. Enjoy!