Go to the Article: The Egg Calculator
OMG! This is amazing. This is what I have been waiting for. The visual slider with the videos are the best part. There have been calculators in the past but they have always been non-visual. It's hard to know exactly "semi firm" means. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I am going to use this tonight!
This is so great!!!! What an awesome tool!
Thanks, David! Enjoy!
Amazing. Right now I can't see the white and yolk example clips for some reason. On my iPhone no problem though.
Amazing, indeed. Such a great tool!
Thanks, Matthew. Spread the word!
Hey Robert, what browser/os are you having problems with?
Great work Tim and team!
Thanks, Michael! Great meeting you the other day
Mac OSX 10.6.8 Firefox browser 30.0 which is the most up to date.
I'm having trouble with this calculator as well. I am running Mac OSX 10.6.8, and have tried viewing this on Firefox (version 30.0) and Safari (version 5.1.10). Neither works.
Great that you have Douglas on board - hold onto your hats! As for the Calculator, the "egg size" tweak may be more useful if it were a function of egg weight rather than US size ranges, or of string length. Also, the string length spin-box shows very odd equivalents: 11mm = M, 13mm = L, 14mm = XL and 15mm = Jumbo.
Chris, we're working to solve the cross-browser issues now. Sorry for the inconvenience! You can also try Chrome or upgrading Safari in the meantime.
Great read. Excellently written and very interesting. This is exactly why we love chefsteps.
I'm having some problems using the app on my nexus 7 (2013) running Chrome 35.0.1916.141. The pictures don't show up, just a black box.
This is going to be great thanks! FYI Australians eat vegemite on toast not marmite that craps disgusting!
Hi chix
The egg calculator idea is Fantastic and it will save precious time on trial and error. Now ,two question come to my mind.
1. egg served cold not reheated option:
As a chef , I also do some SERVED COLD egg of any type,and by experience , I know that the peeling( shelving) of those slow cooked eggs become very tricky.
So, how do we implement the Pre or Post boiling time ? ice bath period to stop fast cooking ? I did personally find out that boiling before slow cooking get easier shelving.
But all this must interact and change the time of the cooking calculator.
2. Quails egg.
I do canapé party where quails egg are involved. like mini Haddock quiche with warmed poached egg on the top or starter dish with cold soft boiled eggs involved.
Poached quail egg "( with a 62°C yolk texture) and a clean but soft aspect of white " in a water bath end up being the most difficult to achieve in big quantities: if you have to be able to cook hundred of them, it 's better to precooked them before service "mise en place " and also peeled them and let them sit in water like you would do the traditional way.
I have until now had many echec on trying, shelving from cold is almost impossible without breaking apart ,white is messy from hot.
So I get a bit frustrated that i cannnot get the perfectionist dream of a "poached egg like" cook in a water bath.
Also ,very important remark , I have experienced that regarding Quail eggs, the size factor to calculate time of cooking has not work.
The times of cooking are surprisingly close to the time of cooking an hens egg.
So ,don't you think that pre or post boiling, and served cold should be integrated in the options to select in the Egg Calcuator?
And from from your experience ,are quails egg any different ? Has any body achieved the perfect "poached like" in a water bath in a big scale?
Many thanks
froggiechef
Very nice, would be even nicer if you could made this into a smartphone app.
I'd love to see this incorporated in the CS-app
This is amazing!!! Keep up the great work.
This calculator works well on the iPhone, which is admittedly where I'll be using it most. Quick question, I can't seem to find a visual clip for firm egg yolks (hard boiled), was that intentional? Even the most firm setting on the slider seems somewhat fudgy
This is just awesome !
My god! Best thing ever.
Beautiful! Could also be interesting to have the option to run the calculations in the opposite direction - entering a water bath temperature and time (or even a range of times), to then get a visual of what the outcome is going to be.
It is definitely on the list!
Hi Mark, I wish weight worked better than it does. When I compared the error between direct measurement and my model, it was much higher with weight than with diameter. That's because my model requires the diameter and eggs with the same weight often have different diameters: notice how some eggs are almost spherical while others are torpedo like.
Gald to hear Douglas is with the CS team now. That is fantastic. The calculator is an amazing tool guys. Great job! It works with no "video/clips" on my Android phone. Any plans to make this compatible with Android and maybe actually make it work as an app for Android?
Michael,
Fixed. Please don't tell my Australian brother in law I mixed those up.
Elie, we're currently working on ways to have it display properly on all the common devices including Android. Thanks for your patience as we work on this!
It would be great if you could provide the reverse calculator too (or just show the graphs for the time/temperature/viscosity relationships). At home you often have limited number of immersion circulators (as in "less than or equal to 1") and if you want to do some other cooking at the same time, it would be great to know what kind of results you can achieve using given temperature of the water bath, only changing the cooking time.
You had me at 'The Egg Calculator", then lost me at the mention of Marmite! A slight edit with the inclusion of Vegemite would be welcome in the land down under (that's the big one on top, not the little (but very nice one) under).
Not to nit pick , but I think you still fixed it wrong. I believe Brits eat their Marmite, not New Zealanders
Having a little trouble with Safari browser also......cooked a couple of 71c / 19min 2 sec eggs. They came out EXACTLY as pictured
Elie: No. NZers definitely eat Marmite as well. I spent a very woodsy six months there eating Marmite around campfires—which is why I'm shocked I got it wrong in the first place. My Australian in-laws insist on the superiority of Vegemite...I've never had the pleasure.
So smart. Because if You Don t have the temperature out of the fridge to calculate with you can t use any of the calculated temperatures and times. So pro. Shame on "Modernist Cuisine" They failed on that one.... ;-) It needed the Chef Steps so bad. I think we are all willing to Support Chefsteps with more paid classes and so on. Clear smart and simplefied style. Thx to all of You.
Hi Michal, The texture of the egg white determines the water bath temperature. So once you choose the white texture that matches the water bath temperature you chose for the other things you're cooking, you can use the calculator to get whatever yolk texture you desire. For higher bath temperatures, I encourage you to set the egg's circumference.
Hi Chris, I chose to optimize my computer model for viscosities between evaporated milk and cookie icing. Much thicker than that and my model for viscosity breaks down and I would instead need to model hardness.
I think right now, this is the best website on food. amazing work. this calculator should be its own solo app for smart phones
what about windows phone?
I agree! Very useful website, all recipes, ingredients, techniques used are really good. Congratulations to all ChefSteps Chefs, and crew..
Egg Calculator App NOW!!
This egg-calculator is awesome!
I've tried many different time and temperatures for eggs and there is usually a gradient in the texture of the yolk. I actually like this for certain things, like in your 15 minute 75 C egg where the yolk has a kind of firm 'skin' encasing the more fluid center. But if I want a homogenous texture of the yolk (at say, 63-63.5 C) with firm whites I haven't found a better solution than a two stage cooking technique. I cook the egg at equilibrium temperatures for the temperature of the yolk and chill in an ice bath. I then finish in a high temperature bath or even crack the egg into simmering water, depending on the texture I want for the whites. It would be super cool if you made a calculator for that.
Just used this with not the best results. Did 70C for 26min and got a very firm yolk and a very watery white. Grade AA extra-large egg in a circulating bath.
What temperature of the egg should I use? I cracked an egg and the yolk read 1C and the whites were closer to 5/6C. Average it out? I'll try again as I'm sure I did something wrong, but was quite surprised by the result.
Is the calculator supposed to say "cm" instead of "mm" on the egg circumference measurement? A 14 mm circumference egg is hardly what I'd call "x-Large".
Hi Chip, it should be 148mm, not 14. Might be a browser issue? Can you post a screen? Here's what it should look like:
Thank you very much for this amazing tool. Made my life so much easier. Besides the great eggs i produce every time, its great fun to sit down with somebody and the laptop an go: "hey, lets look how you want your breakfast egg cooked" - so cool!
Altitude? Anyone?
Future functionality: altitude slider?
There is a up/down arrow to use for selecting the value which hides the last digit. Using Firefox browser
