Cracking the perfect boiled egg - a tasty piece of science

Fed up with rubber-tough white and chalky yolk, or a weepy undercooked mess? A team of Italian materials scientists has finally cracked the problem but their solution, published in the prestigious journal Communications Engineering, might raise a few eyebrows.

Did I mention it takes 32 minutes?!

An eggs-periment (sorry!) in hot and cold

The challenge, as it turns out, isn't just about timing—it's about temperature. As lead researcher Emilia Di Lorenzo explains, "The cooking of an egg is basically a problem of energy transfer."

The challenge is that the egg white needs about 85°C for perfect cooking, while the yolk wants a gentler 65°C. When trying to cook these two different ingredients at the same temperature, surely, something's got to give?

Instead of bowing to this culinary conundrum, the team at the University of Naples Federico II approached the humble egg as a materials science problem.

Using computational fluid dynamics (the same math that helps design aircraft wings and insert medical implants), they modelled heat flow through the egg to create a fascinating new approach.

Di Lorenzo and her yolk-folk call it "periodic cooking."

The magic method

The technique requires two pots of water: one boiling and one lukewarm (30°C). You alternate the egg between them every two minutes for a total of eight cycles i.e. 32 minutes.

As Dr. Ernesto Di Maio, the lab's director, enthusiastically reported to National Geographic, he tried the method with his family last Easter "and they were amazed by the taste."

But here's where it gets really interesting.

The researchers discovered something unexpected. These periodically cooked eggs had higher levels of polyphenols—beneficial compounds with antioxidant properties—than traditionally cooked eggs.

It seems that the gentle temperature cycling not only produced better texture but also preserved more nutrients.

Let’s science the yolk outta this

The science behind it is fascinating. The alternating temperatures create distinct heating zones inside the shell, giving the white and the yolk the different exposures that they need.

The yolk maintains a steady 67°C throughout most of the process, while the white experiences the higher temperatures it needs to set properly.

You can read the full research paper here

Beyond the breakfast table

This research extends beyond the breakfast table and shows something remarkable about the world we live in.

Even something as simple as boiling an egg involves complex heat transfer, protein denaturation, and fluid dynamics.

The humble brekky staple becomes a salutary lesson in how mathematics can solve everyday problems—even if the solution takes longer than traditional methods.

So next time you're having breakfast, remember this. With a little bit more effort, that simple boiled egg on your plate could be a mathematically perfect creation.

(Full disclosure … if you come to my place and ask for eggs, I’m boiling them in one pot for 3 minutes!)

That’s all from me for now. If you'd like more geeky fun, please check out my other newsletters below, or connect with me on LinkedIn and/or X.

Yours in geekiness,

Adam