I had my first experience with a 65 degree egg a few years ago and completely fell in love with it. Lately, I’ve been making this dish a lot, serving the 65ºC egg over a warm salad of sauteed greens with chili oil.
So what makes an egg cooked at 65ºC so special? I won’t go into all the science, but around 65 degrees is when the egg yolk begins to coagulate. If you cook an egg at a temperature between 60 to 65 degrees, you’ll have an egg where the egg whites and egg yolk have a similar consistency and are both still runny and just starting to coagulate. Some prefer cooking the egg at something a little lower than 65 degrees, but what I like at 65 degrees is that the yolk becomes custard-like. It’s thick enough that you can spread it with a knife over a piece of toast.
I achieved my 65 degree eggs with a home sous vide circulator I bought as a gift for myself. Sous vide is a slow cooking technique where food is cooked in vacuum sealed bags in a temperature controlled water bath. A professional sous vide machine can be quite pricey. In the last few years, affordable home circulators have come onto the market, allowing us non-chefs to make sous vide dishes in our own home.
I bought myself the Sansaire Circulator from Sur La Table right after we moved into our home last year. Call it a housewarming present to myself. A few of my friends had purchased it and were filling their Facebook and Instagram feed with the most mouthwatering photos and I just had to get one. Fast forward to a year later, and I am finally using it. Now I just need to break out the yogurt maker, pasta machine….the list goes on.
Eggs are a great way to start using the circulator because unlike meats, they don’t need a vacuum sealed bag since the eggs have their shells.
All you need to do is attach your circulator to a pot filled with water and set it to the temperature you desire. Gently place your eggs in. When the water reaches the desired temperature, you set a timer and let it cook. The circulator will keep the water at a consistent temperature throughout. This is a slow cooking technique and for a 65 degree egg, it’s recommended that you cook it for 45 minutes. I always set it up right before I’m going to take on another project so that the time goes by much faster.
Once you get the hang of it, you can always play around with lower temperatures and different cooking times. Supposedly Joel Robuchon cooks his eggs at 62 degrees for 4 hours!
Once the eggs are done, your put them in a cold water bath to stop them from further cooking. Then you crack them open and you can do whatever you wish with them. I’ve seen people poach them, eat them as is, put them into a recipe, etc. I love serving mine with a warm salad, with the egg custard acting as a salad dressing once it’s broken up. This is actually how I ate my first 65 degree egg at a restaurant a few years ago.
65C Egg with Warm Salad
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 lb broccolini
- 3-4 multi-colored carrots sliced
- chili oil
- chili flakes
- salt
- olive oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
Instructions
- To make the 65-degree eggs, set up your home circulator following manufacturer's instructions, filling up pot with water, securely attaching circulator. Program circulator to 65C. Gently place eggs into the water. Once water reaches desired temperature, let cook for 45 minutes.
- Remove eggs after 45 minutes, and place into cold ice water bath to stop them from cooking further and to cool the eggs off. Once eggs are cool to the touch, you can remove from the water bath.
- Meanwhile, prepare your warm salad. Add a little olive oil to your pan and heat on stove. Once hot, add in garlic and cook until aroma of the garlic comes out. Add broccolini and carrots and cook until tender. I like to stir a few times and then add some water and cover the pan with a lid to let it cook faster. Once vegetables are almost cooked, season with salt, chili oil and chili flakes and continue to stir until salt and chili oil is evenly distributed.
- Place salad onto two plates. Crack eggs. When you first crack the eggs, the outside of the whites will be extremely runny. I usually shift the egg between my hands a few times to get rid of the extremely runny whites and only keep the whites near the egg yolk. Place one egg onto each salad. Cut open and enjoy. I like to toss my salad in the egg custard.
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
