Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159 DOI 10.

1007/s11483-010-9200-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Culinary Biophysics: on the Nature of the 6XC Egg

Csar Vega & Ruben Mercad-Prieto

Received: 21 October 2010 / Accepted: 27 December 2010 / Published online: 12 January 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract Shell-on eggs cooked by immersion in water at low and constant temperatures (6070 C) yield yolks with very particular textures. Structure development in such unique cooking conditions is far from understood. The present study shows that egg yolk, despite its compositional complexity, follows typical gelation kinetics found in many globular proteins and that it can develop structure at temperatures as low as 56 C. It follows that yolk texture is dictated by time/ temperature combinations. Under isothermal, low temperature cooking conditions, the thickening and gelation kinetics of egg yolk follow Arrhenius-type kinetic relationships. The energy of activation of these processes was 470 kJ mol1, which agrees well with the values reported for the denaturation and gelation of the thermally labile chicken serum albumin and immunoglobulin Y. Results are related to common foodstuffs in order to allow chefs and home cooks to achieve a priori conceived textures in egg yolks. Keywords Egg yolk . Texture . Sous-vide . Gastronomy . Science-assisted cooking

Introduction Runny yolks find their way into the table in two ways, either as poached or soft-boiled eggs. In these preparations,
C. Vega (*) Mars Botanical, 1330 Piccard Dr, Rockville, MD, 20850, USA e-mail: cesar.vegamorales@gmail.com R. Mercad-Prieto Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK

the culinary objective is to cook the white long enough so it sets, while warming up the yolk to a point where it develops the desired consistency. Getting the right texture is easier said than done as cooking shell-on eggs in boiling water has two main disadvantages, namely: (a) cracking the shell and leakage of egg white and (b) limited control of the outcome given the high heating rates and, as a result, a higher risk of getting overcooked, smelly and greenish egg yolks. Some professional cooks have taken a relatively new approach to cooking eggs by use of temperature-controlled water circulators. Using this device, chefs now cook eggs at relatively low temperatures (6070 C), for relatively long periods of time (at least 1 h). This technique is now ubiquitous in the restaurant world as today is rather common to find the so-called 6XC egg in many menus around the world although low temperature cooking is also applied in the preparation of all sorts of foods: from lamb to eggs to fish to crme Anglaise. We use the term 6XC egg since the second digit varies depending of the restaurant (usually from 0 to 5). To complicate things further, the cooking time, for the same temperature, varies from chef to chef.1 Over the last decade, technologies suited for industrial food processing such as freeze drying, inductive heating, temperature-controlled water baths, or emulsification are now common in many of the best restaurants in the world.2 However, in order to enable the cook to consciously exploit these new tools to his/her advantage, it is essential that the chef understands what happens to the food during its preparation and how this may be influenced by changing preparation methods, conditions or compositions. In other words, chefs can tremendously benefit by increasingly basing their cooking on systematic knowledge (scienceassisted cooking). One of the aims of this paper is to

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

153

contribute to the growing field of science-assisted cooking by systematically addressing the simple task of cooking an egg. By no means is this the first scientific contribution trying address the issue; it is however, the first one to focus on the slow cooking of eggs. Some physicists have made efforts to rationalize the challenge around the time needed for the thorough cooking of eggs (i.e., hard-boiled) in boiling water.3,4 The applicability of the simple heat transfer equations proposed therein will be tested for the cooking of 6XC eggs. It has been suggested that, when cooking eggs at relatively low temperatures (6070 C), once the desired internal temperature of the yolk has been reached, the time the egg spends at such temperature does not really influence its texture.5,6 This is the consequence of a deeply rooted belief that a critical temperature for the cooking of an egg actually exists. This culinary assertion will be tested by objectively measuring the rheology of egg yolks while being heated at conditions relevant to the slow cooking process. The relevance of this contribution relies on offering practical and useful answers to the following questions: Are there significant textural differences among eggs cooked within the 6XC domain? How would the texture of those eggs be better described? How versatile is the technique (i.e., can we get the same results by using different time/temperature combinations)?

the conditions used,16 although the secondary structure starts to be lost permanently above 50 C.17 The good gelation ability of BSA has long been established,18 and it is known to form gels at <60 C.19 The calculated activation energy for the denaturation/aggregation process of BSA is found between 300540 kJ/mol.20,21 Avian immunoglobulin Y (IgY, -livetin) aggregates and precipitates at 60 C,12 and it is less stable than mammalian immunoglobulin G (IgG),22 which only denatures quickly at >65 C.23 However, detailed denaturation studies are only available for IgG. The Fab domain in IgG is shown to have denaturation peak earlier than the Fc one, at 60 and 71 C, respectively,24 and it looses its secondary structure above 40 C.25 In addition, the Fab is much more hydrophobic, which can cause the gelation of IgG at as low as 55 C24. The thermally labile Fab domain has an energy of activation (Ea) of denaturation of 450 kJ/mol compared with the 690 kJ/mol of the Fc domain.24 If the overall aggregation process is followed, this results in a lower Ea of 310 kJ/mol at 7085 C.26,27

Materials and Methods Egg Yolk Temperature Profiles During Cooking In order to illustrate how texture is developed within a rheometer, it is first required to experimentally determine the temperature profile of the egg yolk while it cooks. This was done by carefully inserting one or two K-type thermocouples into the egg so that their ends resided within the yolk, as reported previously.3 Eggs were selected in order to have the same size: 23.30.7 mm (95% CI) wide, 31.41.9 mm large and of 72.73.4 g of weight. The egg was then immersed into a water bath set to 60, 64, or 70 C and the temperature profile was continuously recorded. When the yolk reached the desired temperature, the egg was then plunged into icewater. The decrease in temperature was also recorded. Simple heating rates were established from the experimental temperature profiles in the egg yolk as shown in Figure 1. For experiments with a final isothermal temperature 62 C, the initial thermal history is not important as little or no texture development (e.g., increase on viscosity or modulus) is observed during the time needed to reach that temperature (approximately 18 min). A linear heating rate of 2 C/min was then chosen to obtain the desired temperature in about 18 min. For experiments between 63 and 66 C, the initial heating rate was 2.3 C/min up to 60 C, followed by a second rate of 0.32 C/min until the specified temperature. For experiments above 66 C, the initial rate was 2.9 C/min up to 60 C, while the second rate was 0.69 C/min. Figure 1 shows the simulated heating

Thermal Stability of Egg Yolk Proteins It is also of scientific interest to identify what and how causes the thickening of the egg yolk; more in particular, which of 119 proteins found in it7 are linked to texture development. Several studies have shown that key emulsifying and gelling properties of the egg yolk are well represented in the plasma, not in the granules.810 The plasma fraction corresponds to about 75% of the dry weight of the yolk, of which about 25% are proteins. The major proteins in plasma, and in the whole yolk, are low-density lipoproteins (LDL) which represent 85% of the weight; the rest are mainly livetins. Short heat treatment studies have shown that the most thermally labile proteins in the yolk are: LDL proteins, -livetin, -livetin and -HDL.11,12 Other protein fractions like -livetin, -HDL, - and -phosvitin are mostly unaffected at <75 C.10,13 Therefore, for the low temperature regimes used to obtain 6XC eggs, the three protein fractions of interest are: LDL, - and -livetin. Chicken serum albumin (-livetin) is very similar to the better known bovine serum albumin (BSA).14,15 The peak denaturation temperature of BSA using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is found at 60 C depending on

154
75 70 65 Yolk temperature (oC) 60 60C 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 0 5 10 15 time (min) 20 25 30 70C 64C

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

pseudoplasticity. Similar measurements were done to a variety of semi-solid foods in order to establish descriptors that could be used to represent the texture of the cooked egg yolks. These foods included: Lucerne Whipping cream (35% fat), Aunt Jemima Original pancake syrup, Hersheys chocolate syrup, Daisy sour cream (16% fat), Fage Total 2% fat Greek yogurt, Grandmas original molasses, Nestls La Lechera sweetened condensed milk, Hellmans Real Mayonnaise, BillyBee liquid white honey, Jell-O ready-toeat chocolate pudding, Nutella, Colgate Total clean mint toothpaste, Betty Crocker decorative cookie icing, and Marmite yeast extract spread.

Fig. 1 Experimental heating profiles inside the egg yolk (points) when heating an egg at different isothermal temperatures compared with the temperature profiles used in the rheometer (continuous lines)

Results and Discussion Modeling the Heating of a 6XC Egg Understanding the temperature increase inside an egg when it is being cooked in boiling water has caught the attention of a number of scientists and cooking amateurs3,4,28,29 where in some cases it has been analyzed using thermal diffusion equations within a sphere-like object. The cooking time is then predicted by calculating the time required to reach an arbitrary cooked temperature at the yolk. This cooked temperature is reported at 85 C for hard-boiled eggs,3,29 while 6365 C is reported for softboiled eggs cooked in boiling water.28,29 We discuss here the validity of such models for 6XC eggs, those heated in low temperature isothermal baths. In the works cited above, the temperature inside the egg was calculated considering a conduction-only equation (Eq. 1), where the only unknown variable is the thermal diffusivity . This parameter is different for different parts of the egg, but the mathematical analysis used requires a single value (i.e., the egg is considered to be homogeneous). Typical values are: 1.53107 m2 s1 for water, 1.41107 m2 s1 for the egg white and 1.22107 m2 s1 for the yolk.3,30 However, when applying the conductiononly model (see Appendix) to the experimental data of Figure 1, higher values were required, >2107 m2 s1, in order to obtain a reasonable agreement (see Figure 2). Buay et al.3 found reasonable results by use of an overall of 1.6107 m2 s1, while using boiling water as the heating medium. For 6X C eggs, the much slower simulated heating profiles using egg-like values suggest that a conduction-only model is not appropriate. Almonacid et al.31 also reported high values when cooling eggs. As suggested by Denys et al.32 using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, the model outlined in the Appendix fails because convection inside the egg is required to explain the faster temperature rise observed in the early minutes.

rates that were used in the rheometer for three final temperature zones. Rheology Yolks from fresh hen eggs bought from a local supermarket (Columbia, MD, USA) were carefully separated from the whites. Any left white was removed by carefully rolling the yolk in a paper towel. Yolks were then pierced in order to collect their liquid interioras to avoid interference of their thin membrane in the assessment of textureand thoroughly mixed. Small Deformation Rheology Time-sweep oscillatory measurements were performed by applying a constant strain of 0.1% at a frequency of 1 Hz by means of a Physica MCR501 stress-controlled rheometer (Anton-Paar, Graz, Austria) equipped with a Peltier temperature controller with a Couette device consisting of a cup and bob with diameter of 28.91 and 26.66 mm, respectively. Approximately 18 mL of raw egg yolk were transferred into a pre-conditioned (25 C) rheometer cup. A thin layer of vegetable oil was poured on top of the sample to prevent evaporation. The temperature of the sample was then (1) increased up to the desired final temperature, using the linear heating rate (s) previously described, (2) kept constant for a given period of time, and (3) reduced to 25 C with a 5 C/min cooling ramp. The effect of different cooking times at a given holding temperature was established by changing the isothermal time (2), steps (1) and (3) were kept constant. Shear Viscosity After cooling to 25 C, the sample was subjected to a steady shear rate ramp from 0.05 to 500 s1 in order to assess its

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

70
= 2.2 10-7 m 2 s -1

155

60 Temperature (oC) 50 40
= 1.5 10-7 m 2 s-1 (water, ~egg white)

30 20 0 5

= 1.2 10-7 m 2 s-1 (egg yolk)

10

15 time (min)

20

25

30

Fig. 2 Temperature increase inside the egg yolk during the cooking of an egg at 63.50.4 C (red line). Error bars show the standard deviation of three replicates. Black lines are simulations using the conduction-only model discussed in the Appendix, Eq. 1, with three different thermal diffusivity values. The dimensions of the eggs used in Eq. 2 where: a =0.00314 m and b =0.00233 m

When heating an egg in boiling water, coagulation occurs rapidly in the egg white and heat is mostly transferred by conduction. Whereas when heating at 6XC temperatures, the egg white does not set (only one eggwhite protein is capable to do so at such low temperatures, ovotransferrin,33) which allows internal thermally induced flows: i.e., natural convection. Therefore, conduction-only models are not appropriate to simulate the temperature increase in 6XC eggs. Based on this, it could be argued that future work must include elaborated CFD simulations of eggs heated at low temperatures. This is not necessary because the starting premise used in these simplified models does not apply to the 6XC eggs: the final state (i.e,. when the egg has the desired texture) is not determined by an end temperaturethe 85 C of Buay et al.3 for hard-boiled eggs or the 63 C of Williams28 for soft-boiled eggs. As it will be shown, texture development in the egg yolk depends on the cooking temperature and on the time the egg is held at that temperature, i.e., its thermal history. The next section will show that in the case of 6XC eggs, the initial heating process modeled here becomes less important as the isothermal cooking temperature is reduced. In other words, the initial temperature increase period inside the egg shown in Figure 1 is much faster than the gelation kinetics of the yolk. Gelation Kinetics of Egg Yolk As discussed above, temperature overrides time in importance during the cooking of eggs in boiling water. In the context of the 6XC eggs, the importance given to the (gelation) temperature of either the yolk or the white is akin to that of phase transitions such as freezing or boiling (i.e., a specific, critical temperature is sought after)which has nurtured an erroneous notion around the gelation phenom-

ena of 6XC eggs. This interpretation could derive from the relevance of specific temperatures given to the denaturation and gelation processes of proteins as it is common to read that a protein has a specific denaturation or gelation temperature. However, this is mostly false, as previously shown for the denaturation34 and gelation35 of model proteins. Both processes follow kinetic equations, and normally, the higher the temperature the faster they proceed36,37. At very low temperatures, the problem becomes that it can take an unreasonably long time to finish an experiment. It is the purpose of this paper to show that both time and temperature determine the final texture of 6XC eggs. Let us first analyze the gelation kinetics of egg yolk in conditions similar to the cooking of the 6XC eggs. The gelation process was monitored using small deformation rheology. As shown in Figure 3, the gelling behavior of egg yolk resembled that of many protein systems.38 As the temperature increases, the elastic and viscous moduli decrease following the decrease in viscosity. A point is eventually reached where both moduli rise quickly, followed by their crossover (i.e., tan = G/G =1) where the gelation point is usually defined to be (Figure 3b).38,39 At long timescales, the moduli reach a constant value.39 Once a gel is formed, a decrease in temperature results in a strengthening of the gel.40 Figure 3a shows that little change in the modulus is observed before the final holding temperature is reached. Therefore, for 6XC eggs, very accurate predictions of the temperature profiles inside the eggs are not required, as not much happens during the early 20 min. As expected, higher holding temperatures reduce the gelation time significantly (Figure 3b). The reasons behind defining the gelation time as tan = G/G =1 were convenience, simplicity and objectivity, as we do not try to perform a rigorous analysis of the Winter Chambon criterion here,41 although it has been shown elsewhere that it should be applicable for the heat gelation of the yolk.39 Nevertheless, this crossover point is fairly frequency independent within experimental reproducibility (data not shown). Figure 4 shows the gelation time for egg yolks when shell-on eggs are cooked in a water bath set at temperatures between 54 and 70 C. Important to notice is that gelation is still possible at temperatures well below the so-claimed 6XC regime;5,6 it just takes an impractically long time for culinary applications (for example, 16 h at 58 C). Secondly, the total gelation time is reduced as the temperature is increased up >67 C, thereafter it remains constant at 28 min. The reason why it is constant is clear from the heating profiles of Figure 1: for most of the 28 min the yolk is at much lower temperatures. This scenario is similar to that of hard-boiled eggs using boiling water: the gelation kinetics once the egg temperature

156

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

(a)
1000 70

64oC 60oC
Storage Modulus G' (Pa) 100

65

56oC

60 Temperature (oC) 55 50

10

45 40 35

energy Ea of 46913 kJ mol1 (95% CI). The fact that a single Ea represents well the whole range of temperatures, four magnitudes of gelation time, suggests that there is a single gelation mechanism at all temperatures. Another indication that the gelation mechanism does not change at different temperatures is that the value of G or Gat the gelation point is constant (see inset in Figure 4). Understanding the Mouthfeel of 6XC Egg Yolks The gelation point per se is not a very relevant parameter in culinary terms, as it only defines one texture (as inferred from Figure 4(inset)). It serves a larger purpose to provide the chef or home cook with a wide range of textures that can be created by cooking the egg at specific time and temperature combinations. To this end, the apparent viscosity at 10 s1, a shear rate widely correlated with inmouth behavior of food,42 was taken as an initial point of reference. Figure 5 shows how the viscosity changes during the cooking of a yolk at a constant temperature for different lengths of time. As expected, the yolk becomes increasingly viscous on one end, and shear thinning as the cooking time lengthens. Interestingly, raw egg yolk is a non-Newtonian fluid. Experiments performed at a wide range of temperatures and times allow for the construction of a plot having the apparent viscosity in mouth (10 s1) as a function of the isothermal heating times (Figure 6). Short cooking periods at low temperatures do not increase the viscosity (e.g., temperature <61 C for <50 min). On the other end, when the water bath was set at >65 C, a viscosity increase could be observed even before the isothermal temperature was

1 30 25 0.1 0.01 0.1 1 Total time (h) 10 20 100

(b)
10

tan

60oC 58oC 62oC 64 C

gelation time
o

56oC

0.1 0.01

0.1

1 Total time (h)

10

100

G' at the gelation time (Pa)

Fig. 3 a Evolution of the storage modulus for egg yolks cooked in the rheometer at different isothermal temperatures. The faded lines show the thermal history of the yolks. b Evolution of the damping factor tan ( = G/G) as egg yolks are cooked isothermally at different temperatures. The arrow shows that the gelation time (tan =1) for the 64 C experiment is about an hour

10000

approaches the cooking temperature are very fast compared with the overall heating time. The limiting step is the heat transfer, not the gelation kinetics of the yolk. In order to consider only the latter, the time required to reach a temperature very close to the desired cooking temperature was subtracted from the total gelation time. In this way, the gelation time corresponds to the time that the yolk is at, or very close to, the isothermal (or cooking) temperature. Figure 4 shows that the isothermal gelation time now continuously decreases at higher temperatures. Under these quasi-isothermal conditions, the gelation kinetics can now be established. Considering a standard Arrhenius relationship for the temperature dependence, it is found that the reciprocal of the isothermal gelation time, i.e., the rate of the gelation process, presents an activation

Gelation time (min)

1000

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 Isothermal temperature (oC)

100

10 Total time Isothermal time 1 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 Isothermal temperature (oC) 69 71

Fig. 4 Gelation time for egg yolks cooked at different isothermal temperatures. Isothermal gelation time (tg, isothermal) points (circles) are calculated by subtracting to the total time (error marks) the time needed to reach the isothermal temperature 1 C. Each point is an individual experiment. Line is the best-fit Arrhenius relationship 1=tg;isothermal 8:85 1072 exp 469 103 =RT . Inset , elastic modulus at the gelation time, when tan =1. Continuous line is the average, dotted lines are the 95% CI, 12144 Pa

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

10000 0 min 1000 viscosity (Pa s) 15 min 30 min 45 min 150 min

157
2 Linear slope viscosity (Pa s/min) 1 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.07 0.05 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Isothermal temperature (oC) 66 67

100

10

0.1 0.01

0.1

1 10 Shear rate (1/s)

100

1000

Fig. 5 Apparent viscosity as a function of shear rate (at 25 C) for egg yolks cooked at 64 C for different holding times. Their mouthfeel was characterized at 10 s1, shown as a dotted line

Fig. 7 Temperature dependence of the linear increase of the viscosity with the isothermal heating time, calculated in Figure 6. Error bars are the 95% CI of the calculated linear slopes. Line is the best-fit Arrhenius relationship

reached. As a comparison with the previous analysis of the gelation time, Figure 6 also shows the approximate locus where the solgel transition occurs, which more o less corresponds to a constant viscosity value (at 10 s1) of 16 Pa s. Once the viscosity starts to increasea delay time is common in the aggregation and gelation of globular proteins its final value (after quenching to 25 C) increases with the holding time in a pseudo-linear manner. This apparent linear increase may not have a physical reason (it may well be much more complicated), but considering experimental repeatability and the desired simpler cooking process, a linear increase with time after the initial delay time is considered here. The temperature dependence of this viscosity increase rate is again determined using an Arrhenius relationship, Figure 7, resulting in an Ea of 48337 kJ mol1. This value is statistically not different from the Ea determined from the isothermal gelation time, and strongly implies that the thickening and gelation processes are governed by the same molecular mechanism.
60 Viscosity at 10 s -1 (Pa s) 50 40 30 20 10 0 0 50 100 150 200 Isothermal heating time (min) 250 300
aprox.Sol-Gel transition

Molecular Considerations for the Cooking of 6XC Eggs As discussed in the Introduction, previous reports suggest that plasma proteins are mostly responsible for the thermally induced gelation of egg yolks. Serum albumin and immunoglobulin Y, which represent 55% of the proteins in plasma, are known to denature and aggregate at temperatures <60 C. These proteins have many disulfide groups and hydrophobic patches necessary for the thickening and gelling processes in yolk,9,43 and it is already known that they can form gels by themselves at such low temperatures.19,24 The Ea observed here for the gelation and thickening steps agrees with the values reported in the literature for their independent denaturation and aggregation processes.20,21,24,26,27 Therefore, we can conclude that both serum albumin and IgY are likely to be involved in the texture development of 6XC eggs. The role of the third group of plasma proteins, LDL, is less clear. Traditionally, LDL has been considered to be the main proteins involved in the gelation of yolk in hardboiled egg conditions.12 LDL solutions thicken and form gels above 70 C.44,45 These high temperatures would suggest that LDL is not involved at lower gelation temperatures; however that cannot be inferred from those studies as the heating time was only 5 min, i.e., LDL solutions could thicken and gel at lower temperatures if heated for longer times. DSC experiments on egg yolk show a major peak at 80 C with a shoulder at 72 C.43,46,47 The broad peak at 80 C is expected to correspond to the most abundant proteins in yolk, LDL, which is confirmed by studies on pure human LDL.48 However, in pure egg LDL at pH 8 the peak is reported at 70 C,49 thus DSC experiments do not clarify the matter. Stability studies have reported that LDL is stable below 60 C, but it is fully aggregated after heating it at 70 C for 5 min,44 while higher temperatures are reported for shorter heat treatments

66C 65C

64C

63C 62C

61C

60C

Fig. 6 Apparent viscosity of egg yolk at 25 C at 10 s1 after being heated at 6066 C for different holding times. Lines for each set are the best-fit linear regressions for heating times that show a viscosity higher than the maximum expected in the absence of a heat treatment (horizontal dotted line). Thick red line shows the approximate locus of the Solgel transition using the tan =1 criterion at different isothermal temperatures

158

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

(7276 C for 2.5 min.12) In summary, any contribution from LDL in the thickening/gelation of 6XC eggs cannot be discarded; however there is no direct evidence that they can form gels at such low temperatures. Culinary Relevance This study also aimed to provide chefs and cooking amateurs with a useful tool that could enable them to create a priori conceived textures via the slow cooking of an egg. Results shown in Figure 6 reveal how an increase of only 1 C in cooking temperature can make a significant difference in the final texture of the yolk. For instance, cooking an egg for 30 min at 63 C renders a viscous fluid, whereas doing at 64 C results in a gelled yolk. However, the challenge relies on translating the rheological jargon into a language that chefs can interpret and apply in their kitchens. There is a need for descriptors of texture for cooked egg yolk. Terms like viscous, runny, or thick remain insufficient and ambiguous to cover the wide range of textures that can be achieved. For this reason, the apparent viscosity of a series of semi-solid foods was characterized (Table 1). It is hypothesized that, by association to other food products, it could be possible to describe and even better, demand a sought-after eating experience. The significance of Table 1 is that it represents a reference library of textures which can be used as a tool to describe the texture of cooked egg yolk. Note that any pseudoplastic behavior from the references foods is not considered, but is known to be relevant, as the shear rate of interest was limited to 10 s1.

Once the cook is able to articulate the texture that is desired, the next challenge is to select the appropriate cooking conditions to achieve such a texture. This is possible by the construction of an iso-viscosity plot that relates the desired texture with the multiple time/temperature conditions that enable its creation (Figure 8). Cooking at temperatures >66 C demands quite a bit of practice with the technique in order to create significantly different textures (see inset in Figure 8).

Conclusions The thickening and gelation kinetics of egg yolk at relatively low and constant cooking temperatures follow Arrhenius-type kinetic relationships showing that, contrary to popular wisdom and in some cases even ill-conceived technical advice,6,50 both time and temperature are relevant in the texture development of 6XC eggs. Hence, there is no such thing as a 63 C or a 65 C egg. The Ea of these processes was 470 kJ mol1, which agrees well with the values reported for the denaturation and gelation of the thermally labile chicken serum albumin and immunoglobulin Y. The role of the abundant LDL proteins on softboiled eggs is unclear and demands future work. While scientific in nature, the results also have an actual practical application as they demonstrate that hypothesis-driven experimentation in the kitchen (i.e., science-assisted cooking) can enable better cooking and eating for all of us.

Total cooking time (min)

750 700 500 450

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 65

Total cooking time (min)

Table 1 Viscosity at 10 s Food Whipping cream Raw egg yolk

of a series of thick edible fluids at 25 C Viscosity at 10 s1 (Pa s) 0.02 0.09 0.96 1.4 2.9 3.0 3.3 6.8 12.1 13.8 18.3 28.1 29.3 43.8 43.9

400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 59 60 61 62 63

66

67

68
o

69

Holding Temperature ( C)

Pancake syrup Chocolate syrup Sour cream (17% fat) Greek-style yogurt Molasses Sweetened condensed milk Mayonnaise Ready-to-eat chocolate pudding Honey Nutella Cookie icing (fresh) Toothpaste Marmite

64

65
o

66

67

68

69

Holding Temperature ( C)

Fig. 8 Iso-viscosity lines that relate the holding temperature to the total cooking time needed to develop a characteristic texture in egg yolks (by immersion of eggs in a temperature-controlled water bath). Each line represents a desired texture: (circles) sweetened condensed milk;, (filled squares) mayonnaise, (filled triangles) honey, (empty squares) cookie icing, and (filled circles) Marmite. The inset shows a close-up of the high-temperature region where texture development occurs at a faster rate

Food Biophysics (2011) 6:152159

159 19. A. Tobitani, S.B. RossMurphy, Macromolecules 30, 48454854 (1997) 20. X. Cao, J. Li, X. Yang, Y. Duan, Y. Liu, C. Wang, Thermochim. Acta 467, 99106 (2008) 21. S. Baier, J. McClements, J. Agric. Food Chem. 49, 26002608 (2001) 22. M. Shimizu, H. Nagashima, K. Hashimoto, Comp. Biochem. Physiol. B Biochem. Mol. Biol. 106, 255261 (1993) 23. H.E. Indyk, J.W. Williams, H.A. Patel, Int. Dairy J. 18, 359366 (2008) 24. A.W.P. Vermeer, W. Norde, Biophys. J. 78, 394404 (2000) 25. A.W.P. Vermeer, C.E. Giacomelli, W. Norde, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-General Subjects 1526, 6169 (2001) 26. D.J. Oldfield, H. Singh, M.W. Taylor, K.N. Pearce, Int. Dairy J. 8, 311318 (1998) 27. E. Lichan, A. Kummer, J.N. Losso, D.D. Kitts, S. Nakai, Food Res. Int. 28, 916 (1995) 28. C. D. H. Williams (2010) The science of boiling an egg. Available at: http://newton.ex.ac.uk/teaching/CDHW/egg/ 29. S. Stlen, J. Vedde, Kunsten koke et egg (2010) Available at: http://www.kjemi.uio.no/publikum/popularkjemi/egg/ 30. S.L. Polley, O.P. Snyder, P. Kotnour, Food Technol. 34, 7691 (1980) 31. S. Almonacid, R. Simpson, A. Teixeira, J. Food Sci. 72, E508 E517 (2007) 32. S. Denys, J.G. Pieters, K. Dewettinck, J. Food Eng. 63, 281290 (2004) 33. H. Yamashita, J. Ishibashi, Y.H. Hong, M. Hirose, Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 62, 593595 (1998) 34. M.A.M. Hoffmann, J.C. van Miltenburg, P.J.J.M. Van Mil, Thermochim. Acta 306, 4549 (1997) 35. C. Le Bon, T. Nicolai, D. Durand, Macromolecules 32, 6120 6127 (1999) 36. E. Doi, Trends Food Sci. Technol. 4, 15 (1993) 37. A.H. Clark, G.M. Kavanagh, S.B. Ross-Murphy, Food Hydrocolloids 15, 383400 (2001) 38. W.S. Gosal, S.B. Ross-Murphy, Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 5, 188194 (2000) 39. F. Cordobes, P. Partal, A. Guerrero, Rheologica Acta 43, 184195 (2004) 40. M. Anton, M. Le Denmat, V. Beaumal, P. Pilet, Colloids Surf., B 21, 137147 (2001) 41. F. Chambon, H.H. Winter, J. Rheol. 31, 683697 (1987) 42. N.R. Pollen, C. Daubert, P. Prabhasankar, M. Drake, M.L. Gumpertz, J. Texture Stud. 35, 643657 (2004) 43. A. Guerrero, J. Carmona, I. Martinez, F. Cordobes, P. Partal, Rheologica Acta 43, 539549 (2004) 44. T. Tsutsui, J. Food Sci. 53, 11031106 (1988) 45. R. Nakamura, T. Fukano, M. Taniguchi, J. Food Sci. 47, 1449 1453 (1982) 46. J.M. Aguilar, F. Cordobes, A. Jerez, A. Guerrero, Rheologica Acta 46, 731740 (2007) 47. F. Cordobes, J.A. Carmona, I. Martinez, P. Partal, A. Guerrero, Gums and Stabilizers for the Food Industry 12 (Springer, Berlin, 2004) 48. S. Jayaraman, D. Gantz, O. Gursky, Biochemistry 44, 39653971 (2005) 49. F. Speroni, M.C. Puppo, N. Chapleau, M. de Lamballerie, O. Castellani, M.C. Anon, M. Anton, J. Agric. Food Chem. 53, 57195725 (2005) 50. P. Barham, L.H. Skibsted, W.L.P. Bredie, M. Bom Frst, P. Mller, J. Risbo, P. Snitjr, L.M. Mortensen, Chem. Rev. 110, 23132365 (2010) 51. J. Unsworth, F.J. Duarte, Am. J. Phys. 47, 981983 (1979)

Appendix The analytical solution of the dynamic process of heating by conduction of a sphere was provided by Unsworth and Duarte.51 The temperature at the centre of the sphere is given by Tc t Tb Tb T0
1 X n1

1n1 en lt
2

where = 2/r2; is the thermal diffusivity, and r is the radius of the sphere. Buay et al.3 expanded Eq. 1 for prolate spheroids not too different than a sphere, using the equivalent radius re instead of r. re 2ab b ba 2

where 2a and 2b are the major and axes, and  minor  = arcsin p 2 2 (e)/e, where e is the ellipticity e 1 b =a .

References
1. C. Vega, Egg yolk: A library of Textures, in The kitchen as a laboratory: science reflections inspired by the kitchen, ed. by C. Vega, J. Ubbink, E. van der Linden (Columbia University Press, New York, 2011) 2. C. Vega, J. Ubbink, Trends Food Sci. Technol. 19, 372382 (2008) 3. D. Buay, S.K. Foong, D. Kiang, L. Kuppan, V.H. Liew, Eur. J. Phys. 27, 119131 (2006) 4. P. Roura, P. Fort, J. Saurina, Eur. J. Phys. 21, 95100 (2000) 5. P. Gadsby (2007) Cooking for eggheads. Discover magazine. Available at: http://discovermagazine.com/2006/feb/cooking-foreggheads 6. H. This, Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor (Columbia University Press, New York, 2006) 7. K. Mann, M. Mann, Proteomics 8, 178191 (2008) 8. M. Le Denmat, M. Anton, V. Beaumal, Food Hydrocolloids 14, 539549 (2000) 9. V. Kiosseoglou, A. Paraskevopoulou, Food Hydrocolloids 19, 527532 (2005) 10. F. Guilmineau, I. Krause, U. Kulozik, J. Agric. Food Chem. 53, 93299336 (2005) 11. D.K. Dixon, O.J. Cotterill, J. Food Sci. 46, 981983 (1981) 12. M. Le Denmat, M. Anton, G. Gandemer, J. Food Sci. 64, 194197 (1999) 13. N. Matsudomi, K. Ito, Y. Yoshika, Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 70, 836842 (2006) 14. P.F. Predki, C. Harford, P. Brar, B. Sarkar, Biochem. J. 287, 211 215 (1992) 15. C.W. Heizman, G. Muller, E. Jenny, K.J. Wilson, F. Landon, A. Olomucki, Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 78, 7477 (1981) 16. C. Giancola, C. De Sena, D. Fessas, G. Graziano, G. Barone, Int. J. Biol. Macromol. 20, 193204 (1997) 17. Y. Moriyama, E. Watanabe, K. Kobayashi, H. Harano, E. Inui, K. Takeda, J. Phys. Chem. B 112, 1658516589 (2008) 18. N. Matsudomi, D. Rector, J.E. Kinsella, Food Chem. 40, 5569 (1991)