Cooking with science!

[Screwdriver]

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Bacon fried in water, poached eggs in acid.

Ok so apologies for anyone who has discovered this trick with the bacon in particular...

It looks so wrong!!



Didn't have any vinegar (that's in the workshop!) so I used citric acid. Six teaspoons for the record.



Once the water has boiled off at high heat the fat has been rendered, reduce the heat to brown off the meat.



Perfect!



Incredibly after 4 minutes in off boiling water, the poached eggs were also perfect!



There are a few YouTube vids where I picked this up from and I PROMISE you, once you've tried bacon this way, there's no going back. It's delicious, tender and yet somehow also crispy. The poached egg thing also works well with no after taste but since I rarely poach eggs anyway, no idea how handy this is. The cold acid bath causes the egg white to stiffen up (the protein is denatured) forming a little torpedo shape, scoop that up with a ladle (complete with some of the acid) and carefully transfer to the low boil water. Mine took 4mins. Set egg white, runny yolk. Yummy!

[Mr. Dazzle]

I always do poached eggs in clingfilm - line a little bowl / ramakin (sic) with clingfilm and crack the egg into that, then twist the top so you've got a little eggy bag. Then poach as normal. AFAIK that's how they do it in restaurants, it means you can poach them all in advance to within 30s of done and store them in ice water, when you want one to serve you just chuck the package in boiling water for 30s and job's a goodun.

Interesting on the bacon - it makes sense to me though. The water keeps it at 100°C during most of the cooking (the same concept is used in various kinds of evaporative coolers) and then you only get the really high temperatures right at the end. Gentle cooking 'through' and then a bit of colour to get the maillard reaction on the outside.

[Screwdriver]

Yes, I think the "trick" is that the water allows the fat to almost fully render without overdoing the meat. Then once the water is boiled off, the surface crisps so quickly, the meat doesn't turn into rock.

[Mr. Dazzle]

It'd probably be really good on some properly thick bits of bacon

I get mine from a butcher now, he slices it off there and then for you. Bacon steaks

[mangocrazy]

Completely agree on the 'boil your bacon in water' thing. It's the best way I've found to cook bacon. You get bacon that is magically soft and also crispy, without turning into bacon flavoured cardboard.

I also watched a guy cooking fried eggs in bulk a few years ago, and he basically cracked eggs into about an inch depth of vegetable oil at the right heat (i.e. not too hot). No dicking about flicking oil over the egg to equalise the cooking operation, just wait until the eggs are 'au point' then hoick them out with a slotted spoon.

[MrLongbeard]

Ok so apologies for anyone who has discovered this trick with the bacon in particular...

It's a new one on me, I shall have the wife give it a go over the weekend

[Mr Moofo]

Just use the air fryer !

[Trinity765]

I saw the acid egg thing on Youtube. What put me off is you have to soak them for 10 minutes - leave them too long they pick up the acid taste (vinegar in the vid), not long enough and it doesn't work. I use the oiled sandwich bag method for poached eggs which is pretty full proof. The semi-poached bacon thing is interesting though so will try that. Looks good!

[Mr Moofo]

Cooking with acid ( be aware it’s not cooking as such - but denaturing of the protein) has been used traditionally - probably the best known be Ceviche or the Hawaiian version Poke.
It is why , when’s you marinade fish, you shouldn’t put the lemon on until the last minute.

As for the bacon thing - I will try. From a good science perspective, fat begins to render at 73 degrees - so rendering will occur in both water and straight grilling. I am guessing the water will bind in the protein. But also dilute the flavour?

[Screwdriver]

Be interested to hear how people get on with the bacon fried in water (yes, I know, I am taking poetic licence). Eggs poached in acid is closer to a truth but with the (actually quite strong) citric acid, after 10 minutes, there was absolutely no detectable acid taste in the result.

I believe the idea is that the egg forms a nice shell of denatured protein which causes it to contract and form into an ovoid. All that does is allow the egg to maintain its shape while poaching in the regular manner. No messing about with stirring up vortices, egg shaped vessels or bags of clingfilm etc. Be interesting to conduct an experiment in zero g but perhaps leave that for another time.

The biggest advantage for me is that the white is poached quite quickly and it's very easy to tell when it is fully firmed so that you can pull it out with a perfectly runny yolk. Also seems to "get rid" of the watery white layer surrounding the albumen which normally makes my poached eggs look more like a mound of wet tissue paper.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Heston Blumenthal advocates cracking them into a sieve I believe, to get rid of said watery layer.

It's 50/50 to me which is more hassle - doing 'em in clingfilm, or pre-poaching (pickling?) them.

[Silly Car]

Tried the bacon this morning, can’t say I noticed a huge difference but I’ll try it again at some point.

In terms of poaching eggs, the following is the ‘best’ way of achieving a perfect soft centred egg:

Large pan, lots of gently boiling water with a generous amount of vinegar in it (I use white or malt, what ever is to hand)
Crack a large fresh egg in to a ramekin - if the egg isn’t so fresh, use Heston / Nigella’s tip of straining off the surplus liquid
Shout at Alexa to set a 3 min timer *
Tip egg(s) into boiling water
After three mins, remove pan from heat
Lift out eggs with slotted spoon and tip onto tea towel to remove excess water
Serve

*If cooking to serve later, 2.5 min timer, lift out and pop into lots of iced water, reheat in simmering water for 30 secs

[Mr Moofo]

I have never found a way of stopping poached eggs from tasting of vinegar - so stopped using it.
Tried the cling wrap route but that just leads to the egg sticking to the cling wrap!

[Screwdriver]

Tried the bacon this morning, can’t say I noticed a huge difference but I’ll try it again at some point.

My first test was a bit of a disaster. Where I went wrong was in the last few seconds, lit. say 30 seconds when it browns off so quickly you've got to be really quick about fishing it out. I also went for my usual black as soot cooking technique (I do like my bacon crispy!) which is not necessary with this process, I will experiment with gradually reducing the browning section timing...

As for the "poach the egg in boiling water" technique, well yes but the acid trick stops it from turning into a vaporous apparition as soon as it hits the water. Just the slight firmness in the acid dipped egg helps keep it in one piece and also crucially, holds it together well enough to test it for done-ness.

To be honest, I suspect the improved results are as much to do with taking some additional care in the process as it is following whatever process takes your fancy. The "acid dip" just tickled my fancy and made the chore of cooking anything more interesting...

I will always be cooking my bacon as above though. It's a real game changer for me.

[Count Steer]

Fascinating stuff. I always thought that the egg white solidified through cross-linking ie polymerisation sort of thing. Never knew that denaturation was actually breaking the weaker bonds. Apparently you can do the egg trick in acetone. (It's implied that sodium bicarb will work too).

My missus will judge a hotel kitchen based on their poached eggs. Any hint of vinegar and they're immediately ranked as 0 Star. There's a café above what was the Army and Navy (now House of Fraser?) in Guildford (great views) that churn out 100s of eggs benedict every day and always spot on. They must pre-prep batch loads and I'll bet, after reading this thread, they use a cold process.

[cheb]

Methanol has the right boiling point for cooking eggs perfectly, 65 centigrade.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Just use the air fryer !

Doesn't the egg fall through the holes?

[mangocrazy]

Why not just use silicone egg poachers? Smear a bit of oil or butter on the inside, pop the egg in and boil for 4-5 minutes. No need to over-complicate it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193881725460

[Mr Moofo]

Why not just use silicone egg poachers? Smear a bit of oil or butter on the inside, pop the egg in and boil for 4-5 minutes. No need to over-complicate it.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/193881725460

That actually produces coddled eggs not poached ones.
They are okay - but closer to boiled than poached.
It's a simple thing to cook - but there does seem to be an art to getting it right.

In the food industry everyone got really moist about sous vide cooking a few years ago - 50 degrees for a few hours. Never quite understood the obsession.
Re the comment on the air fryer - I made it because it seems to be the go to answer at the moment. You can boil and egg in an air fryer - but it will be too "drying" to poach anything.

The molecular cuisine ala Heston may well have had its day. Sometimes it can taste really good - other times it is just really seriously fucked about food for the sake of fucking food about. Highfaluting chefs love it - cos it makes them rock stars.
That said there are obviously things that can be learned.
Its a shame that more cheffing is not just using local ingredients really well. I have never seen anywhere around here offering the scallops that they catch around here! They all go to Korea

[Mr. Dazzle]

I still refuse to call my air frier an air frier, it's a tiny oven! Saves me loads on leccy though and it was free, so I begrudgingly like it.

I've looked at those silicone things too. They don't make poached eggs, that's my main criticism