egg cooker
An egg boiler is a kitchen appliance for boiling eggs , which is usually operated electrically . Simple water containers in which the eggs are boiled for a defined period of time can be regarded as predecessors.
Eggs are often pierced at the blunt end before cooking, e.g. B. with an egg cutter , so that the air can escape and the eggs do not burst when cooking. However, the effectiveness is controversial.
construction
An electric egg cooker usually consists of a heater in which water is heated, an egg attachment in which the eggs are laid and a lid that has an opening on the top to allow the water vapor to escape and serves as a splash and heat protection.
There are two ways to determine the cooking time:
- Using a (rotary) switch, the cooking time can be set so that you get a hard or a soft egg, depending on your preference;
- The cooking time and thus the degree of hardness of the egg is set via the amount of water introduced; In general, the less water that can evaporate, the shorter the cooking time.
Above all, the variant in which the cooking time is set by means of the amount of water makes interesting thermodynamic requirements: For example, more water is required for one soft egg than for five soft eggs. This connection, which at first glance seems paradoxical (the assumption that more eggs would require more water, would be spontaneous) can easily be explained by the condensation surface. The more cool egg surface there is, the more water condenses and flows back into the heating zone. On the other hand, if there is less surface, more water escapes - more water must be available from the start.
Egg boilers based on this principle have a temperature switch under the heating bowl that switches off the electrical heating as soon as all the water has boiled away and a temperature above 100 ° C has been reached. A signal tone is then triggered by a buzzer bridging the switch. In order to prevent the heating from being switched on again after it has cooled down, pull out the mains plug on many devices of this type or - if available - press the mains switch .
Due to the different modes of operation, there are some differences when boiling eggs. When you control the amount of water, the cooking time is shorter and less energy is required. There is also no water left in the device after boiling. The thermodynamic principle also results in an automatic compensation effect with regard to egg size and egg temperature. For devices with time control, the amount of water does not have to be dosed precisely. They work in the same way as cooking in a pot. This allows you to take eggs in between if you want soft and hard eggs. The disadvantage is that the remaining water in the device can cause eggs to reboil if they are not removed immediately after the cooking time has ended. In addition, the cooking time may have to be adjusted to the size and temperature of the egg.
