Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Yahoo Food

How To Boil an Egg: The Science, the Controversy, and the Perfect Yolk

Vera H-C ChanSenior Editor, Special Projects
Updated
What makes up an egg

What makes up an egg

1 of 13
Egg whites, also called the albumen, are about 90 percent water and 10 percent protein. In a process called coagulation, simmering heat jostles those tightly furled amino acids that make up the protein, bumping them up against their neighboring water molecules. Simmer the egg just right, and you get a richly textured albumen. Keep that water boiling too long, however, and you’ve just made rubber.

Fast food taste tests, waitresses getting massive tips, the best restaurants across America — these are just a few of the topics Yahoo Food readers loved the most. In a tribute to you, our reader, we are revisiting some of our most popular stories of 2015.

By: Vera H-C Chan

Year after year, the most common how-to questions on Yahoo searches revolve around tying neckties, getting rid of fruit flies, and boiling eggs. Compared to the 177,147 ways to do the first and man’s pitched battle with pests, cooking an egg should be pretty straightforward—after all, we’ve been at it for thousands of years.

Nope. For one thing, there’s the eternal tug-of-war between the cold start versus the simmering boil. For another, how soft you want the yolk defines your very definition of boiled. Trends such as the haute restaurant’s embrace of humble bowls of ramen have made the quest for the perfect yolk akin to a treasure hunt.

Click through as we take a closer look at the confusion —and as we find some answers.

Advertisement
Advertisement