Scientists Say They’ve Found the Perfect Way to Boil an Egg. It Takes 32 Minutes and Lots of Attention
The team used computer models of computational fluid dynamics, then tested out the painstaking—yet reportedly delicious—recipe for themselves
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Boiling an egg is not as straightforward as it might seem, because the egg yolk and the egg white cook at two different temperatures. If the white is perfectly cooked, the yolk is overdone and chalky. But if the yolk is perfectly cooked, the white (also called the albumen) does not solidify completely.
This conundrum has spilled out of the kitchen and into the scientific world. Now, researchers claim to have found the perfect way to boil an egg, as detailed in a study published last week in the journal Communications Engineering.
“The very key of our method is to have a well-cooked albumen without wasting the yolk,” study co-author Ernesto Di Maio, a materials engineer at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, tells the New York Times’ Alexander Nazaryan.
So, what does it take? Besides eggs, you’ll need a pot of boiling water at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, a bowl of water at 86 degrees Fahrenheit, a steamer basket and 32 minutes of time. The researchers stipulate that the steamer basket of eggs must be dunked into the boiling water for two minutes, then into the lukewarm water for two minutes—a switch that’s to be repeated eight total times before you’re cleared to run them under cold water and peel off the shells.
“This is a slower process to get a better outcome,” Joanne Slavin, a food scientist at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the study, tells the Associated Press’ Adithi Ramakrishnan.
How to cook the perfect boiled egg, according to science. pic.twitter.com/rLMOqx7Lag
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 6, 2025
Scientists say this approach cooks both the white and the yolk to perfection. That’s because the average temperature of the two waters—150 degrees Fahrenheit—is perfect for the yolk, while the white cooks in the boiling water. The researchers called this slower process periodic cooking, and they identified it using a surprisingly mathematical approach.
“We wrote a proper mathematical model,” lead author Emilia Di Lorenzo, a chemical engineer at the University of Naples Federico II, tells National Geographic’s Kieran Mulvaney. “And then we took the equation that we wrote and developed a computational fluid dynamics program. ‘What if we cook them at 100 degrees Celsius? What happens?’ And so on.”
Simply put, they simulated various scenarios via computer models—then, they hit the kitchen.
The result? National Geographic’s Mulvaney tried periodic cooking for himself, and though he admits to having skimped out on the engineering precision, he writes that “the result, though, was delicious. The yolk was a rich golden color, the taste was flavorful, and the consistency was slightly soft without being in any way runny.”
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In addition to the flavor, the researchers bolstered their claim by submitting their periodically cooked eggs to eight sensory experts, as well as analyzing their texture, color, consistency and chemical and nutritional properties.
The team ultimately concluded that they had not only found the cooking method that best satisfies the temperature contrast between the white and the yolk but also the one that maintains the egg’s nutritional content better than traditional cooking techniques. Compared to eggs cooked in other ways, theirs had a higher concentration of polyphenols, which are compounds that can act as antioxidants and fight inflammation.
Here’s the punchline: Lead author Di Lorenzo doesn’t even love eggs.
“Eggs are not my favorite thing in the world, but I ate it once,” she admits to Science News’ Bethany Brookshire. “I had to do it for science.”
