h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been reading about slow-cooked eggs recently. It seems like the latest foodie hipster thing so I thought I'd give it a go to see if there's anything in it apart from being a foodie hipster thing. As far as I can tell it's just a foodie hipster thing.

But with a qualification.

Now, to make slow-cooked eggs you need one of the two must-have toys for the up-to-date chef - a sous-vide machine (the other one being a Thermomix blender). Sous-vide, in case you haven't heard, is a method of cooking where food is vacuum-sealed in a plastic bag and then dropped into a hot water bath that's very carefully temperature-controlled so that food can't be overcooked, and it comes out cooked evenly throughout. It's kind of along the same lines as Alton Brown's method of poaching catfish - you cook it in an electric skillet with the thermostat set to a certain temperature which won't overcook the fish, and for that reason you can leave the fish in the milk for an extended period without it turning to milky fish soup.

If it's meat you're cooking, or anything that should come out GBD (golden brown and delicious) it has to be browned afterwards in a pan or under a grill because that won't happen in a hot water bath.

Any road up, you can also use a sous-vide machine without the vacuum bag if you're poaching something, or cooking a soft-boiled egg, but since I don't have one of these contraptions I found that the small ring on my cooker will keep a pan of water at certain temperatures which are in the right range for this process, and I found out which settings equated to which temps, so this morning I got the water to the correct temperature, 167°F, (with the aid of a probe thermometer) and dropped a couple of eggs in.

Thirteen minutes later I took them out, set them in my eggcups, sliced some bread, made a cuppa and sat down to a breakfast of two nicely soft-boiled eggs. I honestly don't think I'd be able to tell the difference between these and eggs that had been boiled for four minutes, but there are a couple of advantages.

Firstly, because of the lower temperature you don't have to be as accurate with the timing as you would if you were boiling it so you can leave the eggs in the water a little longer than 13 minutes, although the water would have to be about 20° cooler to be able to leave them in there indefinitely without overcooking because 167° will, eventually, hard-boil the egg.

Secondly, and this will need more research (it's a filthy job but someone has to do it), I have a feeling that burst eggshells might be a thing of the past with this method. When I lowered the eggs into the 167° water this morning all I got was a thin stream of tiny bubbles coming through the eggshell.

So now all that's left is to try this method with hard-boiled eggs and see how that affects the peeling issue.

keep the research up Though.... it does sound like a lot* of effort and fiddlyness

Actually there's a lot less fiddlyness than boiling. This morning when I got up, I put a pan on the ring, turned the dial to the desired setting for 167°, made a cup of tea and sat down to read the news, emails and stuff. When I was ready for breakfast, about an hour later, I checked the temperature, put the eggs in and the kettle on. Voila

I really oughta try get hold of a thermometer I can use, in the oven, or on the hob... really I want some kind of electronic probe type, that, I could, say, just plug in via the micro-USB to my mobile, to get the reading of temp up on the mobile screen such a thing should* exist (if, of course, there is* an app for it... )

thermomix/schmermomix

would love one but we got a couple of Kitchen Aid things instead. Much much more stylish

My dad now has a remote thermometer that he can leave in the meat on the grill outside and monitor from his recliner.

I live in the land of KitchenAid but I still went for a Kenwood Chef True, the KitchenAid mixer is very stylish, and I did buy a KitchenAid food processor, but I always wanted a Chef. If you see what I mean

Okay, the bowl is quite a bit bigger than I really need, which makes it a bit awkward when I'm kneading enough dough for only one loaf, but it's got one and a half times the power the power of a KitchenAid, and I knew I was going to need that for, er, kneading bread dough Plus there are all the attachments you can get for a Chef like wheat mill, cream maker, mincer, sausage maker, few of which actually seem to be available in the US

my Kitchen Aid is perfectly good for bread. Although I have my own personal Paul Hollywood alike who makes our bread by hand.

Btw, apropos of bread: have you ever made a sourdough starter? and if so do you have any tips?

I suspect, btw, that everything you can get for a kenwood chef (I love those, btw) you can get for the Kitchen Aid. We already have loads of stuff for ours.

No, I've never made sourdough. I don't like the taste. I stick with plain white bread, sometimes with an ounce or two of wholemeal flour thrown in. I love the flavour of a good quality white loaf, especially when it's fresh