How to Boil an Egg in the Microwave
with 21 comments
(soft-boiled egg with mi goreng)
I know this sounds really simple but humour me for a second. I still get people telling me ‘omg! you cannot possibly put foil and egg in the microwave!’
There are only about 3-4 things I make in the microwave (in fact I only make boiled egg in the microwave when there is only one egg or two eggs involved – anymore than that I use the stove), otherwise the poor thing just sits there as a defrosting machine.
Everyone knows that putting a whole egg into a microwave is a bad idea. I, of course, tried it. Simply because it’s harmless explosion fun* (I mean let’s face it, how often do you get harmless explosion fun! Very messy though).
The idea behind boiling an egg in the microwave is that the foil covers the egg. The foil acts as protective layer which the microwave frequency does not penetrate. So when you put in a foil-wrapped egg in a cup of water, the microwave will heat up the water and not the egg itself. Hence, it takes more or less the same time to boil an egg in a microwave compared to boiling it on the stove top. The main difference is the water heats up a little faster and there’s less washing up to do.
So cover your egg individually and completely with aluminium foil. Do not leave any part of the egg shell exposed. Try to make the foil as smooth as possible. Cover it with water in a microwave-safe mug.
Put the mug in the microwave on high. 8-10 minutes for hard-boiled, 6-7 minutes for medium and about 5 for soft-boiled egg.
(and we are done)
(perfectly cooked egg)
Important: you must watch out that the egg always remains covered with water. There’s a possibility that there water will slosh out of the mug leaving no water. You might need to either turn the heat down or keep topping up the water. It depends on much water is in there and what container do you use. Microwave rice cooker is fabulous. Mugs are sometimes not so great.
* Do not try this at home. Because if you don’t know what you’re doing, it wouldn’t be harmless explosion fun. Although I still strongly recommend browsing through YouTube for all microwave-related fun. Watch. Don’t repeat.
Written by Kat
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 am
21 Responses to ‘How to Boil an Egg in the Microwave’
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The foil will cause sparks dumb ass !!!! :@:@
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feel free not to try then, eh?
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some people…anyway…this is fascinating!! i’ll have to get brave enough to try it, but the idea has tons of merit. (loving wandering through your blog!)
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i have to admit it took me quite a while to actually try it after reading about it a few years back. but what reassured me was that my mum’s microwave manual has some recipes that involves using foil to protect part of the food that you don’t want cooked by the microwave so i thought i might give it a go. and it worked.
thanks for visiting
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Wanted to try boiling the egg that way, but got real scared. Not very brave at all. I have seen someone place food in the microwave at work with foil covering it, and the microwave exploded and the kitchen was badly burnt. Firemen had to put out the fire. Although that happened about 15 years ago, I have never forgotten it.
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dunno. maybe old microwave? i was just reading the office’s microwave’s manual today and they recommend using foil for a few things.
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[…] There’s a couple clips of egg explosion in a microwave on YouTube, but none I’ve seen even compare to what we saw in our second go…perhaps because there was no shell to soften the explosion. In any case, I don’t think we’ll be trying that again…or will we? […]
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Just tried it with HUGE success!! I knew that if you put foil in the microwave UNDER WATER then it is ok – so wasn’t scared to try it! Had THE MOST PERFECT egg!! I hate cooking boiled eggs so this has really changed my LIFE!! Seriously!! Any tips on cooking 2 together? same times? longer?? (mine is a newer (but cheap) microwave and even when the foil was fully submerged no sparks!!)
THANKS!!!! -
Thanks for the tip but for health reasons, it’s good to keep in mind that cooking with aluminum is inviting alzheimer’s into your door.
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So may be wrap the egg in cling wrap first then wrap in tin foil?
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I must admit, i was scared to try this but gave it a go and i worked perfectly!
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http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200137&documentID=99&pageNumber=1
“There is circumstantial evidence linking this metal with Alzheimer’s disease, but no causal relationship has yet been proved. As evidence for other causes continues to grow, a possible link with aluminium seems increasingly unlikely.”Also, Aluminum is pretty much insoluble (because it is prtected by a layer of oxide). Furthermore, the egg is surrounded by a shell; designed to protect it from environmental contamination.
So, over all, I think your concern is unwarranted.
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Also, there are significant amounts of (naturally occurring) aluminum in various foodstuffs: tomatoes, onions, garlic and many spices. So you probably ingest more aluminum from your spaghetti sauce than you do from the cookware. There are also high levels of aluminium in tea and coffee, both of which are linked to a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s.
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it perfectly worked!!!!!!
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no need to be rude
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Genius! And you need not worry about sparks, since the foil is surrounded by water, which cannot critically ionize at the temperatures created by an average microwave.
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You are a genius. It worked perfectly.
Thank you! -
The aluminum-Alzheimers link has been discredited:
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_myths_about_alzheimers.asp
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[…] a link to how to boil a perfect egg in microwave, using foil…. Apparently it works but I was not […]
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What do youknow? It worked!
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Amazing, two kids enjoying their boiled eggs right now. But the most nail biting 8 minutes. Phew – it worked, success!!!
