Getting totally fed up with my inability to cook the perfect soft-boiled egg, for him to dip his toasted soldiers in, my husband bought me this egg timer with a difference.
It is made of hard plastic, shaped like an egg, but flat on one side. It is red in colour, with very clear white markings labelled (from outside edge inwards) “soft”, “medium” and “hard”.
The idea is that you place the timer into the pan, *with* your eggs and cook them as usual. The timer changes colour over time, turning black from the outside edge in. As the inner edge of the black reaches each mark, it is informing you how well cooked your eggs are, “soft”, “medium” or “hard” boiled.
What makes this egg timer so different is that it doesn’t use time to gauge how cooked the eggs are. It precisely senses heat, taking into account the number of eggs, the amount of water used and apparently the sensor can also take into consideration at which altitude you are cooking your eggs!
I was very intrigued when I first saw this egg timer, so boiled eggs and toasted soldiers for lunch it was.
The first thing that struck me was the smell, almost like burning plastic! Although I have found the more I’ve used it the less it smells, so it is probably just because it’s new. Next was the slight problem in seeing how far the black had gone, sometimes it’s necessary to move the saucepan off the heat to get a good look at the plastic egg, to see how near to your desired marker the black is. My last grumble is that you have to keep standing over the pan, watching the timer, to know when the eggs are cooked to your specifications, no bell or alarm to let you know they’re done, no different to a traditional egg timer there though, I shouldn’t be so lazy!
For me, those aforementioned negatives are easily balanced out by the pure accuracy of this egg timer. Obviously, if you want very runny yolks, immediately the black colour reaches the “soft” marker you have to take the pan off the heat, eggs out of the pan and whip their tops off quick! Otherwise they will continue cooking.
I have used this timer for various amounts of eggs, soft, medium and hard-boiled; I have yet to be disappointed, every time the eggs have turned out just how I wanted them. As I have yet to cook eggs at a different altitude I cannot comment on how reliably the sensor adjusts its reaction accordingly ;-)
Egg-Per’fect Color Changing Egg Timers (not a spelling mistake, that’s exactly as it is on the packaging) is a patented product, made by Burton Plastics, along with Grill-Per’fect, reusable, colour changing, temperature sensors for beef, poultry and fish and now also Pasta-Per’fect, for (obviously) different kinds of pasta.
Burton Plastics are usually known for being a major source of custom plastics to the Advertising Speciality Industry. With factories in California and China they have over 50 years experience of creative designs in night lights, anything requested from E.T. to Johnson’s Baby Shampoo bottles. Quite how or why they made the move over to colour changing, temperature sensor timers I do not know!
I definitely recommend this egg timer, which is available in Tesco, if you boil a lot of eggs, which have to be cooked just right, or if you’re anything like my Mum, who, when first married, managed to turn an actual egg black, through burning it, as she didn’t think to add water! Although at £4.99 I’ll leave it for you to decide whether it’s worth it for an egg timer!
For more information on Egg-Per’fect, Grill-Per’fect and Pasta-Per’fect visit: -
www.grill-perfect.com
by (2%):
12.03.2004 00:50
i have been trying to get hold of one of these egg timers for ages. ive looked in most of the specialist cook shops and never thought of going into tescos to get one! im getting one first thing tomorrow!
15.11.2002 11:55
What an amazing little gadget! I've never heard of this before - sounds like a cool Christmas present for someone. Susan.
12.02.2002 02:11
Fascinating! I must get one of these. Kim :-)