Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Other Sciences Question Forum => Topic started by: k1027iwi on June 05, 2006, 07:29:38 PM
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I recall hearing from somewhere when I was young that aside from being able to cook eggs by boiling them, it is possible to cook an egg with extreme cold. You cannot really try this at home because in order to do this, you at least need temperatures reaching around -200 degrees celsius.
Has anyone heard of this before?
I forgot where I heard it from, I just remember hearing it when I was young. I thought it was quite interesting so I've kept it in mind for all these years. Any ideas about this?
It's okay if no one has any clue about this, I'm going to try this experiment using liquid nitrogen sometime this or next week, I'll let you guys know how it turns out.
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If you define "cooking" an egg to be denaturing the proteins in the egg to create the glob of denatured protein which we usually think of when we consider cooked eggs, then I think it could be possible to cook an egg by using cold. It may also be possible to cook an egg using a room temperature organic solvent since that would also promote the denaturation of the egg proteins (although I wouldn't suggest eating an egg "cooked" using this method). I'm not sure whether cooling with liquid nitrogen would fulfil other goals of cooking, such as killing harmful bacteria in the eggs.
But definitely let us know how your experiment goes. I'm interested in hearing the results.
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I've been to many chemistry lectures where these (now tedious ;)) experiments are performed.
Liquid nitrogen is poured on an egg in a frying pan and the egg appears to cook- it goes solid and the albumen of the egg goes from clearish to white. But, when the egg warms up again, back to room temperature, it goes back to its 'uncooked' appearance. It may be that a few proteins (or all of them!) are denatured but I don't think the egg can be considered to be cooked when cooled this way, just solidified.
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Sounds like frozen egg. LOL
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Sorry for the late late late update, but yea, as Will said, it only looked frozen.
I threw the egg with shell in liquid nitrogen, when I took it back out, the shell was cracked and the yolk and whites looked just like regular 'hard boiled eggs.' Unfortunately, when the egg warmed up, it just looked like a melty egg.
Don't ask why I even got my hopes up on thinking that eggs could be cooked with cold, someone told me about it when I was little and it just stuck in my head all these years. This was an interesting experiment though, because I've tried to freeze an egg in a normal freezer before and it wasn't anything close to looking "cooked."
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I have heard that an egg can be "cooked" if it is poured with ethanol at room temperature.
It´s possible ethanol denatures its proteins.
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Boiled eggs ftw. aka BoyScout omlet. LOL
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Sorry I'm late, but if you're interested in cooking with cold, you can freeze apples or potatoes in a common household freezer. The expanding ice crystals damage cell walls, and permanently soften the fruit or vegetable. The frozen mashed potato remains inedible, without heat, important reactions don't occur. But thawed frozen apples are great, like a chilled baked apple.
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i think the idea is denaturation of protein and this can be done by heating like usual
think about any other agent that denature protein like chemicals as phenol and alcohol and any other method lol.