Courtesy of Brunel University The PerfEGG device created by Ben Harris is designed to cook an egg by keeping the water temperature at a constant temperature, without reaching the boiling point.

A student inventor called Ben Harris from Brunel University in the U.K. has come up with a device that could give the egg ink a run for its money. It's called PerfEGG and to get a soft boiled egg, it keeps the water temperature constant for 8.5 minutes without having it reach the boiling point. For a hard boiled one, a timer on the device can be adjusted and apparently the same results are achieved regardless of the size of the egg.

Seems like a good idea, and the device is very eye-catching, but I like to keep my kitchen appliances down to a minimum. I don't know if I would want to invest in something that I could only use for cooking an egg.

So far, the best advice for boiling an egg comes from my mom. Place the egg in water and let it heat gently until the water starts to boil. The egg should be left to boil for about a minute, at which point the pot should be covered and the heat turned off. The egg should then be left in the covered pot for between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on if you want a soft or hard boiled egg.

This method works surprisingly well, and actually seems to roughly agree with the method suggested by one chef questioned by Waitrose Food Illustrated Magazine - a food magazine published by the British grocery store chain by the same name. They got five different answers from five different chefs, so I guess even professionals haven't reached a consensus. For the time being, I think I will stick to my mom's method. But when the printed eggs are on the market, I will have to give those a try, if not for the sake of curiosity alone.

For more info:

Telegraph - The egg that will tell you when it's perfectly boiled
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/31/negg31.xml

Times Online - The smart egg that shows you when it's boiled to perfection
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2292596,00.html