Little Malice wrote:
>
> One time on Usenet, "Michael \"Dog3\" Lonergan" > said:
> > Chatty Cathy >
> > :
> >
> > > Inventor's bright idea for perfect boiled egg
> > > Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:55 AM ET
> > >
> > > LONDON (Reuters) - A British inventor says he has cracked the age-old
> > > riddle of how to boil the perfect egg -- get rid of the water.
> > >
> > > Simon Rhymes uses powerful light bulbs instead of boiling water to
> > > cook the egg.
> >
> > This is not a hard boiled egg. I wonder how big this thing is to hold 4 500
> > wt bulbs. I just keep doing it the old fashioned way.
>
> I don't think they're trying to hard-cook them, sounds more like
> a softer egg if they're planning to dip toast it them. I dunno,
> I've never had a soft-boiled egg, as I don't like runny whites...
>
> --
> "Little Malice" is Jani in WA
> ~ mom, Trollop, novice cook ~

That's the key to a good soft-boiled egg, set whites and runny yolk.

Size wise, four 500W halogen lamps need not take much space at all. The
unit could be perhaps a 6" cube.

Mostly the device will save time and energy by eliminating the large
thermal mass of a pan and water since it applies the energy more or less
directly to the egg. Your three minute egg will take three minutes to
cook, not three cooking minutes plus 5 heating minutes. You will also
not have a pan of hot water full of energy to be wasted once the egg is
cooked.

In a home environment unless you are cooking a dozen eggs a day I can't
see a pay back time in a normal human life span based on energy savings.
If you're eating that many eggs you also won't have a normal human life
span. I can see some utility in a commercial restaurant environment
where it could be more efficient from a labor standpoint.

Pete C.