Anybody used these kitchen gadgets that use steam to boil one or more eggs? Have you got it to cook to perfection?
I'm partial to an occasional dippy egg for breakfast, with toast soldiers of course. I like my egg to be solid set white but runny yolk.
Nobody else in the family is bothered though, so I had to boil a whole pan of water for one egg which is wasteful of energy, and also of my time in a morning.
They work by adding a measured quantity of water depending on number of eggs and desired state (soft, medium, hard). The eggs steam until the water runs out at which point a thermoswitch detects the temperature of the heating plate and switches off. This means a very small quantity of water 50-70ml or so cooks an egg, so the energy used is a fraction* of boiling a saucepan.
*I could measure the quantities and hence calculate the energy used for both methods but I just can't be arsed right now. It's got to be less than 10%, and the eggs cook in half the time.
Browsing round Asda I took a punt on their own brand egg cooker for the princely sum of £8. It'll do up to 7 eggs, but I've only tried it with one. It's not bad, it does do the job, but has a couple of drawbacks.
It doesn't go ping when it switches off, so you've got to be hanging around the kitchen waiting for it. I can deal with that.
I've been experimenting with the exact amount of water (it's supplied with a little measuring cup), and every time eggs from this device usually end up with a snotty white at the top and the yolk at the bottom being hard, so there's obviously a temperature gradient. Instructions tell you to put the egg in upside down (rounder end up) so this suggests the steam collecting toward the top make it hotter. I've tried inverting the egg halfway through but this hasn't worked. What I could try next is cooking the egg in one of the outer holes instead of the middle one. Maybe the flow of steam is more consistent there, dunno.
I'm partial to an occasional dippy egg for breakfast, with toast soldiers of course. I like my egg to be solid set white but runny yolk.
Nobody else in the family is bothered though, so I had to boil a whole pan of water for one egg which is wasteful of energy, and also of my time in a morning.
They work by adding a measured quantity of water depending on number of eggs and desired state (soft, medium, hard). The eggs steam until the water runs out at which point a thermoswitch detects the temperature of the heating plate and switches off. This means a very small quantity of water 50-70ml or so cooks an egg, so the energy used is a fraction* of boiling a saucepan.
*I could measure the quantities and hence calculate the energy used for both methods but I just can't be arsed right now. It's got to be less than 10%, and the eggs cook in half the time.
Browsing round Asda I took a punt on their own brand egg cooker for the princely sum of £8. It'll do up to 7 eggs, but I've only tried it with one. It's not bad, it does do the job, but has a couple of drawbacks.
It doesn't go ping when it switches off, so you've got to be hanging around the kitchen waiting for it. I can deal with that.
I've been experimenting with the exact amount of water (it's supplied with a little measuring cup), and every time eggs from this device usually end up with a snotty white at the top and the yolk at the bottom being hard, so there's obviously a temperature gradient. Instructions tell you to put the egg in upside down (rounder end up) so this suggests the steam collecting toward the top make it hotter. I've tried inverting the egg halfway through but this hasn't worked. What I could try next is cooking the egg in one of the outer holes instead of the middle one. Maybe the flow of steam is more consistent there, dunno.
