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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A568947

Now I was very surprised to find when searching the guide, there was no entry on boiled eggs-so here is something to fill the gap !

All thoughts on this gratefully received!

WD

Cute entry Witty Ditty (I'm sure I've bumped into you somewhere else on H2G2 before), you run the risk of being called Delia Smith though! Actually she might be worth a mention (in case you don't know, Delia Smith famously taught people how to boil eggs [including how to tell if the water is boiling] on her cooking programme, which was deemed patronising by some and the British press).

I've always called them soldiers, never heard eggy soldiers before, though it sounds kinda fun.

Couldn't find any faults (other than the fact that the initial bit on how to boil an egg' was a bit boring to me so I skipped it but it's undoubtably neccessary), well done!

This is a very nice article. Nicely organized and well presented.

Being myself, a hard-boiled egg person and liking them hot, cold, and room teperature, I have become aquainted with both a problem and its solution.

The problem is that when an egg has been boiled and set aside there is no readily apparent method to tell it from a raw egg. Not being organized enough to mark such eggs or trusting enough to allow that those who also share my kitchen will not decide to 'organize' my already carefully disorganized refrigerator, I was glad to learn of another aspect of physics in the kitchen.

When you have a dubious egg in your hand, simply place it on the counter and spin it on its side. The experienced will immediately know by the action whether the egg has been hard boiled or not. The inexperienced may place their finger on the spinning egg, stopping it, then release the egg immediately. If it begins to spin again, seemingly on its own, the egg is raw. (This is due to the fluids in a raw egg, continuing to spin after the shell has been stopped. Those who love to mystify children may like to perform this trick after first having given the child a hard-boiled egg. Then invite the child to try the same effort. Cruel, I know, but the child doesn't and has a glorious magical experience. Particularly when you district him/her and replace the boiled egg with a raw one and allow the child to try one more time. I promise it is worth at least an hour's easy ammusment for you both.)

Additionally and with more physics and a bit of chemistry on the side, if you believe a fresh egg may not be quite as fresh as you would like, simply place the dubious egg in a glass of water. A bad egg will float due to decompositional gasses inside while a fresh egg will not. (Do I need to explain what to do next with your child when he grows tired of spinning, stopping, and releasing? I thought not.)

Barton

You know I had completely forgotten about Delia Smith (quite easily done when thinking of what Jamie Oliver has done); I did see that episode about eggs and the 'here is what boiling water looks like' scene .

I've thrown in a couple of links, however, the h2g2 site doesn't seem to recognise the BBC News Online web address as being a 'Referenced BBC site'. Could it be that it doesn't start off with 'www'? Answers on a post please.....

Actually, the whole 'how to tell a bad egg from a good one/hard boiled v.s. raw' really needs to be an entry...perhaps after this one I'll consider writing one on that....

Sorry, I are not British, fellah person.
I are a Muracan.

Who am Delia Smith and what are Jamie Oliver doing with me both?

Hunh?

Please go ahead and write that other entry. I certainly don't have the time left to add another article to my current clutch of half-boiled ideas.

Barton

Oops! Frankie and I cross posted. I never read his comments.

Nevery mind!

Barton

Half-boiled? Please don't think of your ideas as being such; I'm sure that they are cooked to perfection

Well, just to explain; Delia Smith is a famous TV chef in the UK, as is Jamie Oliver. The difference between them is that Delia is generally regarded as 'reliable', whilst Jamie is generally regarded by the females as being 'pukka'.
Think of a Volvo v.s a Morgan and you get the idea....

WD

Oh and more comments will be gratefully received!

WD

Delia Smith and Jamie Olliver are both TV Chefs on British TV, the former being somewhat stuffy, the latter being oh-so-casual and trendy.

The BBC News link isn't recognised in one of my entries either. I think it's because the URL is www.news.bbc... and not the regular www.bbc.co.uk

I'll have to remember never to read your comments either then Barton!

Witty, a splendid article. You may want to put in links to a couple of other h2g2 articles that discuss eggs. There's one about poached eggs and another about scrambled eggs. They are linked from the eggs yarn that you have linked too.

Loony, infamous loser in the world of (hard-boiled) egg and spoon races.

Shoot! Even *I* never read my comments!

At least not while I'm typing them.



And a Morgan, I assume, is a motorized cariage of some sort and not the rather large horse, that comes to mind. That's right! We still use horses over here. You ever try sticking grass into your auto-mobile? Don't bother. My horse, on the other hand, is starting to really like petrol stations.



Barton

Just added the links to the other egg-related entries; thank for reminding me!

Oh but the Morgan is not just simply a car, it is an experience (I believe that there is an edited entry on the Morgan which was on the front page recently), a perfectly crafted work of art...I could go on, but I'll spare you the torture....

I'd love more thoughts please!


WD

Not now, it's too late!

How to get into...
If you dip a boiled egg into /cold/ water for a short time then you can easily peel of the shell plus the thin membrane underneath.

Being nitty, Archimedes (sp?) prinicple isn't applied correctly:
a floating (buoyant) body displaces water equivalent to its mass, and a submerged body displaces water equivalent to its volume. But neither of these is true for the 'eggy soldiers'.

(pssst: answer to footnote 3: fondled and emptied please)

Re: Post 3: How to tell a boiled egg from a raw one: place it on a table (large enough so it doesn't fall of), then spin it (as Barton said). A raw egg starts tumbling in some uncontrolled manner, while a boiled one rotates properly like a gyro, that is to say that its rotation axis remains in the same orientation.

Great entry!

Oh yeah! The other thing I meant to ask.

I don't believe I have ever seen a hard boiled egg where the yolk was not at the large end of the egg. Are British chickens different in this respect?

Also there is typically a small amount of 'air' under the shell at the large end of the egg and I will always break egg shells starting at that point by tapping the egg on the table or counter. *I* don't know why! It's just the way things are done.

And should there be an entry on boiled eggs without mentioning Lilliputions and the big-endian little-endian dispute? I don't believe that was ever settled.

Barton

All right, more funny fisics facts about raw vs. hardboiled eggs.

This is implied but not stated clearly in Bossel's post. You can spin a hard boiled egg in it's shell on either of the ends and make it stay up on end so long as it is spinning fast enough. You cannot do that with a raw egg. The fluids and semi-fluids along with other parts of a raw egg simply cannot be properly organised to make that happen. (Oh I suppose one could build a machine to spin a raw egg fast enough and long enough before releasing it such that it might stay up on end for a relatvely short period of time. It *might* be possible, but I don't think it would be worth the effort and cost just to prove that it could be done.)



Barton

Oh! Oh! Oh1

And if you still have access to milk bottles, I can tell you how to get a hard boiled egg into a milk bottle without breaking the egg or the bottle. More importantly, I know how to the the egg back out, all in one piece and still edible without injesting broken glass.

If you want to know I'll tell you. But, I expect you probably already know or don't care.

I even know where to get a milk bottle in these days of plastic jugs and coated paper cartons.



Barton

I knew that the Archimedes principle thing was a bit dodgy; I wasn't sure whether it was right or not at all, but I decided to pop it in anyway to check (hey I'm a medic, I have no want for such said stuff ) But it definitely needs altering, and that will be done as soon as I can find a suitable alternative...so it may take some time...

Hmmm, I'm not too sure whether I should mention Swift...the whole Big-ender/Little-ender argument and its intended social satire behind it would take up several entries....but on the other hand, it would be difficult to mention boiled eggs without mentioning them. I'd have to read that passage again and see how it goes. Maybe a whole new header, 'Boiled eggs in Literature'? If anyone who knows Swift better than I do (which can't be too hard) can give me a post in the right direction, then that would be great . Or any other cases of boiled eggs being used in such literary diatribe...please post on the Boiled egg conv.

I don't think that US chickens are any different from UK chickens, but I thought it depended in which end you put the egg in the cup, fresh out of the pan, so then it settles. Give me a week to see the yolk settling thing - I've got too many eggs at the back of my fridge, which do need eating (question of breakfast is hence, 'sorted' ).

On the Hard-boiled/raw note, I tend to put the egg in a strong light - the raw egg should be translucent and the cooked one is opaque. Does require a torch though...but quite impressive if you are cooking for several....

BTW-> pssst! answer to footnote 3 for those at the heart of unwanted attentions is 'unfertilised'. I tell you; it works. I know

And I'd love to know how you get the boiled egg out of the bottle (I still technically live in milk producing Shropshire, so those bottles can be gotten easily - although admittedly, I haven't seen one for years....) - how is that done?

Anyhow, I seem to be writing too much (sorry)

Any further comments will be gratefully received!

WD

Right! Updated the entry which now includes:
>I decided to give Gulliver's Travels and other Boiled egg related trivia in, because it was quite interesting, but I'm not sure whether I should add any more in that respect...there are only a limited amount of things other than eating that boiled eggs are involved in...surely?

>removed the bit on Archimedes principle; after much consultation, it was completely wrong, so had to come out

>spot editing here and there.

Suggestions and comments will be gratefully received!


WD