Pressure Cooked Eggs

[Jenise]

Here's an intriguing post from Michael Ruhlman's website for pressure cooking eggs. I couldn't copy over the picture, but a photograph impressively showed three stages of perfectly cooked eggs wherein the white was firm and the yolk was either thick and runny, partially hard cooked and hard cooked. The stylists might have covered up the blemishes, but the runny yolk guy was particularly impressive: I don't know any way you could cook the white and still have a completely runny yolk. Not that I would eat that.... But the really best part is that this method gives you the kind of shell-release and easy peeling typically facilitated by choosing older eggs for cooking in the shell in a very fresh egg.

Anyway, the 'article' was written by a Ruhlman fan who lives in Italy and adores cooking under pressure.



Pressure Cooking Eggs

by Laura Pazzaglia

Pressure cookers are famous for their cozy stocks, stews and beans, or infamous, thanks to a chef-testant not being able to open, close or operate a one.

There are a few more tricks up your pressure cooker’s sleeve! I’ll start with the ones that caught Michael Ruhlman’s attention on Twitter (fresh easy-peel hard-cooked eggs and eggs en cocotte) and then throw in a few more unexpected things that can come from your pressure cooker. Some use the little-understood low-pressure setting, while others take advantage of accessories or a little technique.

Most cookbooks advise using your “oldest” eggs to make them easier to peel. Your pressure cooker creates a pressure difference between the inside and outside of the egg—inflating the little air pocket at the base of the egg and detaching white from the shell with pressure, instead of age and time allowing for a beautifully “boiled” egg that is a snap to peel.

HOW: With steamer basket, olive-oil cap egg stand, low pressure and exact cooking times. Up to 6 eggs at a time for Soft & Medium-boiled, as many as you can fit for Hard-boiled, also check out the egg cooking table on this page. [Note from MR: When I first tested these, my eggs were undercooked. Laura clarified for me how important it is to make sure full low- or full high-pressure is reached before you hit your timer. The yellow pressure button must not just pop up, it must be solid to the push, you should feel full resistance when you press it down, then begin timing.]

Soft, Medium & Hard Cooked Eggs

•1 fresh egg, chilled (from the refrigerator)

Equipment

•Steamer Basket
•Heat proof egg stand (optional)
•Timer

1.Fill the cold pressure cooker with one cup of water. Add steamer basket or trivet and steamer basket, egg stand, and egg. Close and lock the pressure cooker.

2.Set the pan to cook on low pressure. Turn the heat up to high and when the pan has reached LOW pressure, lower the heat to medium and begin your timer: 3 minutes for a soft, 5 minutes for medium egg, and 6 minutes for a hard cooked egg.

3.When the time has elapsed, open the pressure cooker. For soft and medium boiled eggs, use the Quick Cold Water Release. Bring the pressure cooker to the sink and run cold water over the top without obstructing valves to bring the pressure down quickly. For hard boiled eggs, use the Natural Release Method. Move the pressure cooker to a cool burner and wait for the pressure to come down naturally (about 5 minutes). If in 5 minutes the pressure has not released the lock on the pressure cooker, release the rest of the vapor through the valve.

4.Open the pressure cooker and place the egg in a container under cold running water, for about 1 minute if you would like to serve them warm and 3 minutes to cool down completely.

Um, well, er, ah, I mean, um....
Put the cold eggs in a pot just big enough to hold them in one layer, cover them with cold water. put them on the stove over high heat, bring the water to a boil as quick as you can, turn the heat down enough that the eggs don't chase each other around the pot and crack (After all, they might, if fertilized, become bird-brained), boil for as long as you want (2:30 to 2:50 for eggs with a soft white, 3:00 to 3:15 for eggs with a firm white and a soft yolk, longer for the Neanderthals.
Very fresh eggs want the time on the long side.
The timing depends, as far as I can tell, more on how fresh the eggs are when you buy them than how long you've had them. Living in Sonoma County (Petaluma used to be called the Egg Capital), I can get anything from mass-produced generic eggs to mass-produced "locally sourced" eggs to real local producers, to driving 10 minutes and getting them from the ranch.
I wouldn't waste really fresh eggs on boiling.

John

With our pressure cooker you get 15 lbs of pressure take it or leave it. Have never had any problems with the things I cook in it, but it would destroy eggs. Agree with John on this one.

I couldn't copy over the picture, but a photograph impressively showed three stages of perfectly cooked eggs wherein the white was firm and the yolk was either thick and runny, partially hard cooked and hard cooked. The stylists might have covered up the blemishes, but the runny yolk guy was particularly impressive: I don't know any way you could cook the white and still have a completely runny yolk. Not that I would eat that.... But the really best part is that this method gives you the kind of shell-release and easy peeling typically facilitated by choosing older eggs for cooking in the shell in a very fresh egg.

At your service (I think)

And were those pressure-cooked?
John

[Jenise]

And were those pressure-cooked?
John

SUPPOSEDLY (she said, aware that food stylists are everywhere.)

Your pressure cooker creates a pressure difference between the inside and outside of the egg—inflating the little air pocket at the base of the egg and detaching white from the shell with pressure, instead of age and time allowing for a beautifully “boiled” egg that is a snap to peel.

I would think that the gas law (PV = nRT) would mean that the "little air pocket" would become SMALLER and not LARGER as the pressure increases. I mean, I don't exactly doubt the eventual result, but I think what Laura is visualizing would be more likely to result from cooking the eggs under NEGATIVE pressure. A "vacuum cooker." Wonder what's up with that??

When I turned 50 I took swimming classes, because I had always been scared of water over my head, and there was a spurious graduation speech by Kurt Vonnegut going around that said you had to do things that scared you. Part of the course involved treading water for some length of time (five or ten minutes?) under the high diving board -- 34 feet deep or something like that. My own class isn't the point -- we overlapped with a SCUBA class and they were getting lectured about PV = nRT. I think the instructor made them take air filled balloons and dive down 10 or 15 feet to watch what happened. Hint -- they did not expand!!