Just add soldiers! The £4 timer that changes colour to deliver the perfect boiled egg using water temperature instead of time

• The Egg-Perfect timer uses temperature instead of time to cook egg
• Gizmo has hard, medium and soft boiled indicators on the front
• Colour changes as its cooking so you know when egg is done

By Anucyia Victor for MailOnline

Published: 08:25 EST, 7 January 2015 | Updated: 08:51 EST, 7 January 2015

Delia Smith famously published two recipes on it, Jean-Christophe Novelli says if you can't do it, then you shouldn't be cooking at all, and Mrs Beeton claimed they taste much better when they are been newly laid.

The inexact science of cooking a perfectly boiled egg is one that has tripped up most home cooks. 

But now a simple little gadget, using temperature instead of time, can tell you exactly when you need to take an egg out of the water.

The Egg-Perfect timer uses temperature instead of time to deliver perfectly boiled eggs

Delia Smith says you must never boil an egg that has come straight from the fridge as it is likely to crack

The Egg-Perfect timer $6 (£4) plastic egg has soft, medium and hard indicators on its curved front and a flat surface on the other end which rests at the bottom of the pan.

Absorbing heat exactly as an egg does, the timer changes colour from the outside edge in as boiling eggs progess from raw to soft, medium or hard boiled.

The clever device even automatically adjusts to the number of eggs and level of water in the pot so perfect eggs are delivered every single time. 

Overcooked hard boiled eggs usually have a ring of grey around the yolk and a powdery texture 

The £4 Egg-Perfect egg timer 

The question of cooking a perfectly boiled egg has vexed many for decades.  

Experts at the British Egg Information Service devised a foolproof way to tell when an egg is boiled to perfection: a high-tech ink logo stamped onto the shell that indicates when the egg is soft, medium or hard-boiled.

But can a complex culinary art really be reduced to a science? Looking at the advice of leading chefs, it seems the answer is that no two can agree on a single method - and Delia Smith actually offers two. 

Michel Roux said: 'The secret is not to boil it at all. Growing up in the South of France after the war, we only had eggs as a treat on Sundays as they were very expensive.

'My mother would place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover them with cold water. Then she put them on a medium heat. 

'As soon as the water began to simmer - not boil - she would remove the eggs. They would be cooked perfectly and were never rubbery.

'If you like your eggs done a little more, then take the pan off the heat as soon as the water begins to simmer and leave the eggs in the hot water for around 30 seconds.

HOW TO BOIL AN EGG ACCORDING TO DELIA SMITH  

Delia Smith has two methods to cooking eggs

Delia Smith’s book book, How To Cook, devotes two pages to the art of cooking eggs.

She says you must never boil an egg that has come straight from the fridge as it is likely to crack. (Incidentally, three Michelin star chef Heston Blumenthal suggests putting cold eggs in hot - not boiling - water for a couple of minutes first.)

Use a small saucepan to prevent the eggs knocking into each other and breaking. Also, always make a pinprick in the rounded end to prevent pressure building up in the air-pocket, which would crack the shell.

Delia has two methods for producing an egg with a perfectly runny, golden centre.

Method One: Use a small saucepan filled with enough simmering water to cover the eggs by about half an inch. Quickly, but gently, lower the eggs into the water, one at a time, using a tablespoon.

Simmer for one minute, remove the pan from the heat and put a lid on it.

Leave the eggs in the pan for six more minutes for a soft, fairly liquid yolk and a white that is just set but still quite wobbly. Or for seven minutes if you like a firmer, more creamy yolk with a white that is completely set.

Method Two: Place the pan with the eggs in cold water on a high heat.

When they reach boiling point, reduce to a simmer and cook for three minutes if you like a really soft-boiled egg; four minutes for a white that is just set and a creamy yolk; five minutes for a white and yolk perfectly set with a bit of ‘squidgy’ in the centre

But chef Jean-Christophe Novelli has a different method

'Boiling an egg is not easy and if you can master it, then you are officially in a position to cook. I prefer to start the way my mother and my grandmother did — by putting the egg straight into boiling water. ' 

'Use a metal basket — for example, a deep sieve — to lower the eggs into the water together. That way, if you are cooking more than one, they will all be ready at the same time.

'Plus, you are less likely to burn yourself on the hot water and steam or break the eggs by throwing them in too fast.

'Leave the eggs in the pan for precisely three minutes. Then take them out and plunge them into another container filled with iced water, and you will have the perfect soft-boiled egg.

In her seminal 1861 kitchen authority, Mrs Beeton’s Book Of Household Management, Isabella Beeton exhorts: ‘Eggs are much better when new-laid than a day or two afterwards.

‘The usual time allotted for boiling eggs in the shell is three to 3.25 minutes: less time will not be sufficient to solidify the white, whereas longer will make the yolk less digestible. 

'Great care should be employed in putting them into the water, to prevent cracking the shell.’

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