EGG COOKERY

Activity 2 Cooking Eggs

Soft and Hard Boiled Eggs

Name:____________________________

Purpose:
-To learn the proper way to boil an egg using the knowledge of chemistry.
-To prevent the green ring that can form when boiling an egg.
Equipment and Materials:
1 dozen chicken eggs, salt (sodium chloride), frying pan. sauce pan, water
clock or timer, slotted spoon, egg right timer
Procedure:
A. Cooking an Egg
1. Spray the pan with a cooking spray to prevent sticking. Heat a pan at medium
temperature.
2. Slowly place the egg into the pan. Observe the egg as it cooks. Note in your
observations which parts of the egg set first, next, and then last.
3. Turn off the heat and allow the egg and pan to cool. Note the differences in the egg
after cooking.
Data: Describe the egg as it cooks:

Questions:
1. Cooking an egg: Was this a chemical change or a physical change?
_____________________________________________
Explain your answer: ____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
2. Did your egg brown at all? If so, was it the yolk or the egg white? _______________
3. Browning occurs when a reducing sugar combines with an amino acid. This is called
the Maillard reaction. In the space below, draw the structure of an amino acid.

Part B: Boiling Eggs

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1. Open the carton of chicken eggs. Note how the eggs are arranged (are the blunt end
up or are the pointed ends up?) ________________________________________
2. Each group will take 2 eggs. Mark your name on the eggs and then mark one egg 10
and the other 30.
3. Place the eggs in a pan of cold water. Note any bubbles.

4. Place an egg right timer in the eggs. Place the pan on the heat source and slowly heat
the water. Note what happens to the bubbles.

5. Add 2 tablespoons of salt and cook for 10 minutes or until the egg right demonstrates
that the egg is done.
7. Remove the egg marked 10 from hot water using a slotted spoon. Allow the other eggs
to remain in the hot water an additional 20 minutes just sitting on the hot plate.
8. Immediately cool the egg with cold water. Peel immediately.
9. After the 20 minutes of allowing the hot eggs to sit in hot water, pour out the water and
cool the eggs. Peel the eggs.
10. Now peel the egg whites off of the yolk. Note any color differences between the eggs.

Questions:
1. If an egg is placed in boiling water, it will crack. This is because of the air space in the
egg. If the air is heated and it tries to maintain its pressure, what will happen to the
volume of the gas? Use the combined gas law: PV = nRT in your explanation.

2. The air space is in the blunt end of the egg. When you opened the carton of eggs all of
the eggs should have been arranged in the same way. Is the blunt end of the egg pointing
up or down? Why would this be?
3. Which end of the egg releases the most bubbles through the pores when placed in
warm water?
4. Explain what happens to the rate of the bubble release when the egg was warmed up.
Note what happens to the size of the bubbles.

5. Not many people understand that there are tiny openings, or pores, in the egg shell.
Thinking back to biology class, why would a chicken need holes in the egg shell?
6. From the reading, how many microscopic pores does an average egg shell contain?
7. If the egg is heated too quickly, the air will expand quicker than it can escape through
the pores. Now the pressure will build. Explain why some eggs crack and some do not.
8. Why did the experiment start out with cold water in the pan instead of hot water?
9. When you peeled the egg white away and looked at the yolk, what did you observe
around the yolks of the eggs allowed to sit in warm water for 20 additional minutes?
Explain why this happened.
10. Write the recipe for perfect hard-boiled eggs.

11. Explain how the EGGRITE timer works..

Teacher Notes Activity 2

-Bubbles should form at the blunt end of the egg. As the water is heated, the bubbles
should form faster and the size of the bubbles should increase.
The egg that had the pinhole in it should be shaped more like the egg shell than the egg
without the pin hole. This one should have a blunt-nose end due to the setting of the egg
white before the escape of the gas inside the shell.
There should be a green ring around the yolk of the eggs that were allowed to sit 20
minutes in hot water before peeling.
There should be a blob of egg white at any of the cracks. The white should not stream
through the water due to the presence of the salt.
Answers to the questions:
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS:
1. Using the Universal Gas Equation: PV=nRT, Volume and Temperature are directly
proportional if the other variables remain constant. If the Kelvin Temperature increases,
so will the volume. If the volume cannot increase, then the pressure will increase with an
increase in temperature.
2. The blunt end should be pointing up. This way the air space is at the top. If the egg
were turned down, the air space would try to rise and it would tear the membrane away
from the egg. This would cause the egg to spoil quicker.
3. The blunt end of the egg should release most of the bubbles because this is where the
air space is located.
4. As the temperature of the water increases, the rate of bubble release should also
increase. The size of the bubble should become larger.
5. The chicken egg, when fertilized will contain an embryo. A bird has internal fertilization
with an external development. The developing embryo needs a source of oxygen for the
growing chick. The oxygen will diffuse through the pore openings.
6. The egg shell contains about 10,000 microscopic pores.
7. Some eggs crack when stressed. Some do not crack because they have larger pores.
There is no way of telling which shells will crack and which shells will not crack. It is
better to assume all shells will crack and then do a few simple anticracking techniques to
prevent cracking.
8. The eggs should be slightly different in shape. The egg without the pinhole should
have a pug-nose shape to it while the other should be the shape of the egg shell.
9. The cold water is so that the water temperature will rise gradually instead of a shock to
the system. This will give the air more time to release through the pores. The less air
inside of the egg, the less pressure that can build up.
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10. The yolks should have a green color on the surface of the yolk. This is because as
the egg is boiled, the disulfide bonds break in the protein structures of the egg white and
release sulfur compounds. A gas called hydrogen sulfide forms H 2S and travels to the
coolest portion of the egg; the yolk. The yolk contains iron which has an affinity towards
sulfur. The iron combines with the sulfur forming a green compound Iron (II) sulfide FeS.
11. The perfect recipe for hard or soft boiled eggs is to use cold water to start. Place eggs
in water, cover with water and add lots of salt. Place an EGGRITE timer in the pan. Boil
the eggs and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until done by using the timer. Remove
from heat and immediately cool with cold water. Peel eggs immediately.
12. The EGGRITE timer heats us at the same rate as the eggs. The liquid crystal inside
changes color to indicated the doneness of the egg.

EGG COOKERY
Activity 3
Poached Eggs

Name:____________________________

Purpose:
-To introduce the student to the correct way to poach an egg.
-To determine the effect of acid on the egg.
Materials and Equipment:
5 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
pan
water

4 tablespoons lemon juice

slotted spoon

Procedure:
1. Follow the procedure outlined on pages 7-8 of the ChemMatters Reading.
2. Make observations on a separate data table.
3. Repeat the experiment with the additional egg, but this time, do not use any salt or
lemon juice. Make additional observations.
Disposal:
All egg parts should be disposed of in the trash.
Questions:
1. Why do you use only 2.5 cm (1 inch) of water when poaching eggs?

2. Why was the salt and lemon juice added?

3. What are the three tricks to making poached eggs? Explain why these tricks work.

4. What happened to the egg cooked without salt or acid? Explain why this happened.

Teacher Notes Activity 3

Students think that poaching an egg is the same a placing in the little cups and cooking
them. Make sure you explain that this is different.
The egg cooked without the salt or acid should stream and foam all over the place.
Answers to questions:
1. The yolk will sink to the bottom while the white stays at the top.
2. Salt and acid will denature proteins causing the egg white to form a skin and not foam.
The egg will have a nice shape after cooking.
3. The tricks are to use a saucer to slowly slide the egg into position. This helps in the
shape of the egg. To reduce the temperature of the boiling water to prevent rapid boiling
and moving of the egg as it cooks. To use eggs that are at room temperature to help them
set more quickly. Additional tricks include using fresh eggs and the best quality egg. Do
not crack the egg until ready to use.
4. The egg cooked without salt or acid foamed and streamed all over the place. This is
because there was nothing to set the protein in place except the heat. This takes several
minutes and the protein just ran all over the place. This causes the pan of water to
overboil and cause problems.
REFERENCES
Arthur E. Grosser, Egg Cookery, Chemmatters, American Chemical Society, December,
1984, pages 4-9
Harold McGee , On Food and Cooking, Charles Scribners Sons, New York, 1984.