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Preparing a 6-Minute Egg
Posted by Michael Voltaggio on Feb 2, 2010
On the Top Chef finale we went to Napa and had to cook two dishes using local and organic ingredients.  I love to eat local and organic but it's not really my cooking style.  I pretty much lean towards really unique, hard to find, and seasonal ingredients.  If the ingredients are local and organic, that is a plus, but often they are from strange parts of the world or made by artisans across the country.

However, the challenge definitely opened up my eyes a bit to cooking with local products. There are some amazing farms in Napa and I'm forming relationships with farms catering to the Los Angeles area. If you are reading this and you are a farmer, or know a local farmer around Los Angeles or Frederick Maryland, leave us a note in the comments.

We had to prepare an entree using a meat and a vegetarian appetizer.  Another thing I don't do often is cook vegetarian. I love vegetarian food and do make quite a few vegetarian dishes at the restaurant, but the vast majority of my food is not vegetarian. I wasn't asked to make a vegan dish, we did that earlier for Natalie Portman, so I wanted to use a great vegetarian ingredient that could demonstrate some technique, so I made a six minute egg.  A lot of people have asked me what a six minute egg is and best ways to serve it, so here you go:

A six minute egg is prepared in a similar fashion to a hard boiled but cooked in less time, six minutes versus ten to be exact.  With a hard boiled egg, the entire egg, white and yolk, should be cooked through to a solid texture.  A six minute egg is of course cooked for less time so therefore it has a different texture.  The white part of the egg nearest the shell is firm but not at all hard or rubbery.  As you get closer to the yolk, the white gets softer and softer. The yolk holds itself together but is soft and runny.  It is basically the same texture as an over easy egg but it stays in the egg shape.  Very delicious.

Alright, here's how you make them:

Start out by filling up a medium pot with enough water to cover an egg.  Place the water on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes. Once it is boiling steadily add 1-2 eggs (for bigger batches use a large pot).  Let the eggs sit in the water for six minutes.

When you take out the egg, place it directly into a bowl of ice water for a few minutes. That will slow down the cooking process and make it possible to peel off the shell because the egg white will seize up and separate from the shell.  Here is the key, when you are cracking them, don't hit them too hard because you will break the white and make them difficult to handle.  Tap the egg very lightly on all sides, just enough to crack the shell but not to dent it.  Once you have cracked most of the shell, start pulling it off.  There will be a bit of membrane between the shell and the white so clean it thouroughly. I had to de-shell hundreds of eggs on Top Chef and didn't get the chance to completely clean each egg and I got a little dinged on that.



Once you remove the shell, you have your six minute egg.  It is something you will want to serve accompanied by something else, like bread or a great sauce.  I recommend serving it on a piece of toast or english muffin.

A great and simple breakfast snack is taking an english muffin, separating the two halves, toasting and buttering each half, and putting a great jam on one half and laying the egg on the other half.  Put a little salt and pepper on the egg and dig in.  The white breaks open and the yolk runs over the english muffin. The white stays firm and breaks into nice pieces.

The combination of the egg, english muffin, butter, and jam is wonderful.  More of a snack than something you would see on the Langham menu, but a great quick dish.  To impress your friends, make a great sauce or serve the egg over a perfectly cooked steak.

Thanks and let me know if you have any questions about the six minute egg.

-Michael

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  • Categories: Top Chef , Voltaggio Brothers , Ingredients , Technique
I had another thought: Everyone can find local, organic producers near them through Sustainable Table http://www.sustainabletable.org/home.php
You just enter your zip code and results will show local farms, grocery, restaurants. You may have to widen your search with zip codes around you, but you will get the idea. I hope people are concerned about where there food is coming from, how it is grown and raised, what the impact is on the planet, including the animals raised for food. We should all be concerned about factory farming. Did you see the recent story on Nightline about the  standard practice animal cruelty at the dairy farm in New York? Find out more about factory farming and what we all can do at http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/
This is a similar service to the one mentioned above :)
http://www.localharvest.org/

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  • sqdc
  • Feb 3, 2010
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This was a special treat at my grandma's house growing up. But we called it a soft-boiled egg, and ate it from an "egg cup." We each had our own cup with different goofy designs. I liked to eat it from the larger end with no shell, vs. within the shell on the narrow end.  Oh, and it's funny how I dislike over-easy fried eggs (too runny; much prefer over-medium) but a good soft-boiled egg is an entirely different matter.
Hmmm. Sounds like a good idea for dinner tonight!
Michael, you mentioned that the water should be boiling when you put the egg into the pot but what temperature should the egg be? Can the egg be colder, like right out of the fridge, or should it be left to sit so it comes a little closer to room temperature? 
At home near Frederick MD during the great blizzard of 2010.  Made this delicious egg on a whole grain english muffin.  It was perfect!  Thank you Michael for this great technique.
WOW!!! I will definitely try this and let you know how it goes :)
Hey Michael and Bryan, my aunt and uncle own/run Harry's Berries in Oxnard, CA(45 minutes north of LA).  They grow specialty varieties of strawberries and vegetables.  I'm sure they would be more than happy to give you a tour of the farm if you're ever in the area.
At first glance, I passed this over because of my daugther's severe egg allergy, which includes inhalation, so we've haven't been able to cook eggs in our home from more than 2 1/2 yrs.  As I'm sure you might know the main issue was how the protein is released in the air when you cook it and  I realized it just might keep most of the protein contained in the shell and it apparently does!  Thank you so much, as we need to manage our son's protein as well, with no allergy.  It is such a nice treat to have on the weekends again (but very carefully of course b/c the peeling can get a bit tricky!)  Wonderful - Keep up the great work! 
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