Sous Vide Eggs Kameko-san Part 2: Hard-Boiled

I had expected that the difference in cooking soft-boiled versus hard-boiled eggs in Kameko-san (the sous vide machine) would be the length of cooking; instead, following the instruction, it is a question of temperature. The soft-boiled were done at 64C (147F); the hard-boiled at 71C (160F). In both cases, the time range is given as 45 minutes to 1-1/2 hours. As when testing the soft-boiled eggs, I pulled half out at 45 minutes and left the rest in for the full hour and a half.

Picture above shows the 45-minute hard boiled egg in the shell. The white is still glossy and pliable, while firm enough that I needed to peel the egg, rather than pour it out.

Picture above shows it plated. The yolk is quite firm; the white, congealed but still soft. As with the 1-1/2 hour soft boiled egg posted yesterday, the difference between this and a conventional boiled egg was in texture, not flavor. The yolks were consistently cooked throughout - no gradations from outside to in, as with a traditional soft-boiled egg. The consistent, slightly firm yolk and the congealed but still slightly soft white made a really nice textural combination that reminded me of silk and velvet and was most appealing.

Finally came the 1-1/2 hour hard-boiled eggs. Picture above shows one still in the shell. It is holding its own, although it still felt softer as I peeled it than a conventionally-boiled egg.

Plated, it does not collapse, although it does sag a bit at the bottom, attesting to the relative softness of the whites. As with the other eggs, the yolk was consistent throughout and starting to turn yellow. Again, there really was no taste difference we could identify between these and conventionally hard-boiled eggs. In this case, though, the textural contrast between the yolk, which was very well done, and the white, which was almost-but-not-quite firm, detracted from the experience. With a conventionally hard-boiled egg, the yolk is softer and the firm white balances it. Here, the texture of the yolk was about that of the conventional egg, but there was no balance from the white. Instead, the white seemed like a poorly set aspic.

Among the four options, the uniform opinion was that both soft-boiled eggs were preferred to their conventionally boiled counterparts, as was the 45-minute hard-boiled egg. We thought the 1-1/2 hour hard-boiled egg, though, had gone too far to be really distinctive; instead it came across as a failed conventionally hard-boiled egg.

Altogether, though, an interesting experiment and fun use of a carton of eggs!