Recipe How to boil an egg in the microwave
- Thread starter Morning Glory
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medtran49
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I did 4 eggs at 145 for an hour, then they sat in the warm water for about 20 minutes. Two of the eggs came out as below with a loose jelly like yolk. Two came out with runny yolks. Same batch of eggs, more or less same size. Next time I'll try 140 for an hour and a half.
ETA: actually after thinking about it, I'll split the difference and try 142.5 since we (Craig) want the whites done but a runny yolk. I liked my egg like it was done last night.
ETA: actually after thinking about it, I'll split the difference and try 142.5 since we (Craig) want the whites done but a runny yolk. I liked my egg like it was done last night.
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rascal
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medtran49
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I have to admit, if nothing else, it was nice cooking the eggs with the sous vide and having them done and waiting, rather than trying to time it correctly to get the hash finished and the eggs done correctly while everything was still hot. All I had to do was crack enough of the shell for the egg to slide out.
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Can I just point out to people that the wattage of a microwave oven is equivalent to the temperature of a conventional oven or the temperature of a dehydrator or sous vide.
4 minutes in an 800 watt oven is very different to 4 minutes in a 1200 watt oven.
You really need to state the wattage of you're oven when you give times. After all if you read a baking recipe that just said 'bake for 20 minutes' you'd be questioning it immediately.
4 minutes in an 800 watt oven is very different to 4 minutes in a 1200 watt oven.
You really need to state the wattage of you're oven when you give times. After all if you read a baking recipe that just said 'bake for 20 minutes' you'd be questioning it immediately.
Yeah, I think that's understood, and morning glory touched on that earlier, it's also probably why the original method from the Microwave Consortium (or whomever it was
) gives a range of 3 - 5 minutes, to allow for the range of home microwaves.I honestly don't know the wattage of mine, but it's probably 1100 or 1200 watts. I think the plate with the info on it is either on the back or the bottom, and I'm not moving it to find out.
Of course, being a 10yo appliance, the manual is long gone.I'm trying eggs again this weekend, in a bowl and doing two. It's now become a fun little experiment, just to see if I can do it.
I tried to photograph the details of my oven which are on a strip inside the door - but the numbers are worn off so I also don't know the wattage.
New idea is baking eggs in the oven (in shell). Obviously this may be a bit daft for just one or two eggs - but might be useful if a lot of hard boiled eggs were needed - or if you had the oven on to cook something else. I tried it in the halogen oven which heats up very fast and doesn't use as much energy. The time stated at 180C for a soft boiled egg was 20 mins. Mine was hard as a bullet after that time - so I tried 10 minutes and got a rather good result - can't find photo at the moment.
If you can pan-fry while still in the shell, I'll hang up my apron!
Ok, here's today's experiment :
I did two eggs, in a Pyrex mixing bowl weighted down with a saucer. I'll need a bigger bowl if I do this again, as I had to fill this absolutely to the top of the bowl to get the eggs submerged. That resulted in burned fingertips getting this onto a plate, then into an out of the microwave oven. This is an equipment/process issue, so easily fixed.
Ok, first look is better than last time, mainly because the yolk isn't cooked at all, and last time, I had just the beginnings of cooked yolk. Note, though, that the white isn't completely cooked; I'd prefer that it be cooked more.
Further into the egg, results are still pretty good. Not much in the way of soupy white, so that's good.
The real test, the bottom of the egg. Last time, the white was just going opaque and just coming together. This time, much better. Still too undercooked to be my "perfect" soft-boiled egg. If I received this in a restaurant, I wouldn't complain (though I would point out what I didn't like to my wife
.
All in all, using the rascal scale, I'd say 8/10. Pretty good, definitely better than last time, but still could be better.
One thing I did do a little differently; I didn't immediately run it under cold water. I let it carry over cooking for about 30 seconds before doing that.
I did two eggs, in a Pyrex mixing bowl weighted down with a saucer. I'll need a bigger bowl if I do this again, as I had to fill this absolutely to the top of the bowl to get the eggs submerged. That resulted in burned fingertips getting this onto a plate, then into an out of the microwave oven. This is an equipment/process issue, so easily fixed.
Ok, first look is better than last time, mainly because the yolk isn't cooked at all, and last time, I had just the beginnings of cooked yolk. Note, though, that the white isn't completely cooked; I'd prefer that it be cooked more.
Further into the egg, results are still pretty good. Not much in the way of soupy white, so that's good.
The real test, the bottom of the egg. Last time, the white was just going opaque and just coming together. This time, much better. Still too undercooked to be my "perfect" soft-boiled egg. If I received this in a restaurant, I wouldn't complain (though I would point out what I didn't like to my wife
.
All in all, using the rascal scale, I'd say 8/10. Pretty good, definitely better than last time, but still could be better.
One thing I did do a little differently; I didn't immediately run it under cold water. I let it carry over cooking for about 30 seconds before doing that.
Ok, here's today's experiment :
I did two eggs, in a Pyrex mixing bowl weighted down with a saucer. I'll need a bigger bowl if I do this again, as I had to fill this absolutely to the top of the bowl to get the eggs submerged. That resulted in burned fingertips getting this onto a plate, then into an out of the microwave oven. This is an equipment/process issue, so easily fixed.
Ok, first look is better than last time, mainly because the yolk isn't cooked at all, and last time, I had just the beginnings of cooked yolk. Note, though, that the white isn't completely cooked; I'd prefer that it be cooked more.
Further into the egg, results are still pretty good. Not much in the way of soupy white, so that's good.
The real test, the bottom of the egg. Last time, the white was just going opaque and just coming together. This time, much better. Still too undercooked to be my "perfect" soft-boiled egg. If I received this in a restaurant, I wouldn't complain (though I would point out what I didn't like to my wife
All in all, using the rascal scale, I'd say 8/10. Pretty good, definitely better than last time, but still could be better.
One thing I did do a little differently; I didn't immediately run it under cold water. I let it carry over cooking for about 30 seconds before doing that.
How long did you cook them for?
Oh, sorry, 4 minutes and 15 seconds. I think I'll stick with that next time, and try letting them sit for a full minute to see if the white cooks more firmly.
I'm probably chasing something that doesn't exist; a completely hard-cooked white and a fully-liquid yolk.
Standing them is a good idea, I think.
Oh, and I watched a guy on YT boil one. He didn't use foil at all, though he did add salt to the water, saying if you don't add salt, it'll explode.
Not sure about the salt, but it does seem that the foil isn't required.
I can't see how the salt would work. Some recipes without foil say to pierce the eggs. But I think so long as they are under water they shouldn't explode. I think the function of the foil is to weight them down. But as we discovered, this can be done with a saucer or small bowl. So.....are you going to try it?
Yep, next weekend! I may do some additional research first. I don't know why salt would make a difference - at that point, I'd think boiling is boiling, y'know?I can't see how the salt would work. Some recipes without foil say to pierce the eggs. But I think so long as they are under water they shouldn't explode. I think the function of the foil is to weight them down. But as we discovered, this can be done with a saucer or small bowl. So.....are you going to try it?
I do pierce the fat end of the egg when I boil them on a he stove. I tried that last weekend in the microwave, but I don't think it mattered one way or another. Maybe boiling for just a few minutes negated that. I started doing that after Pepin pointed out that not doing that can lead to cracked eggs mid-boil, and that little pocket of air in the fat end of the egg seeks release and ruptures the shell.