The egg is one of the most complete and popular proteins that exist. Rich in essential amino acids and nutrients, it is consumed boiled, pan-fried or as a fundamental ingredient in other dishes. But, What happens if we cook eggs with vinegar?
Experts and chefs say that it is very useful to add vinegar during the preparation of eggs, both boiled and pan-fried. In the case of fried eggs: adding a little vinegar to the pan will allow the white to coagulate faster and will make it easier to clean the surface.
Chef and author Ned Baldwin, in his book How To Dress An Egg: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner, recommends using a mixture of 25% apple cider vinegar and 75% water when cooking eggs. According to Baldwin, this technique gives the eggs better structure and flavor without making them excessively acidic.
Baldwin recommends cooking them for 7 minutes in a mixture of 25% apple cider vinegar and 75% water, to give them structure and flavor, but without an abrasive amount of acid, with plenty of salt, black pepper, bay leaves and sugar to balance it, according to the cooking site The Vinegar Professor – in collaboration with
Vinegar, being an acid, accelerates the denaturation process of ovalbumin (the main egg protein). This makes the white coagulate faster. For this reason it is ideal to add vinegar to accelerate coagulation, in case of poaching and in general terms.
Professional chefs use mixtures of apple cider vinegar with water to provide better structure and flavor without excessive acidity. Adding drops to the boiling water helps the poached egg hold its shape.
The effects of vinegar on egg white and yolk coagulation are extended to frying an egg in a pan. As in poached eggs, Adding vinegar to fried eggs limits the dispersion of the white, resulting in a more compact egg.
Baldwin goes further and describes the “Killer Eggs” technique (œufs à l’assassin), which consists of adding a small spoonful of red wine vinegar directly to the fried egg once it is ready. This culinary technique is known as “killer eggs” or œufs à l’assassin, where the color of red wine vinegar is said to symbolize blood.
Tricks for cooking with eggs with vinegar
As we mentioned, adding a splash of vinegar (between two or three tablespoons) to the cooking water will help the shell to be removed more easily once the egg is cooked. Besides, Although vinegar does not make the egg shell more resistant in case it breaks, it does speed up the coagulation of the egg proteins, sealing it with its own contents and preventing the white from escaping.
Culinary gastronomy expert Heinz Wuth, known on digital platforms for his explanatory content in Science and Cookingreveals that vinegar does not influence the resistance of the shell or prevent it from breaking, since the shell is made of calcium and does not react to acid.
When boiled eggs are cooked, it is recommended to cool them in cold water at the end of cooking, to make it easier to remove the shell without leaving traces of the product on them.
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