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Visual Doneness™ for Eggs

When it comes to cooking (or anything, really), what could be more empowering than the knowledge that your efforts will yield awesome results? Part of our core philosophy at ChefSteps is that using superior predictive tools—in combination with great techniques and recipes—will help us all become better cooks. We’re throwing serious brain power behind that belief, and it’s with considerable excitement that we introduce you to our very first effort: a Predictive Cooking™ calculator that allows you to precisely control the texture of your sous vide eggs. Developed by mathematician (and ChefSteps hire) Douglas Baldwin, the Egg Calculator gives precise temperatures and times for slow-cooking eggs to produce consistent results—a job no egg timer can do.Baldwin, the author of the indispensable <a href="http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html">Sous Vide for the Home Cook</a>, was an early adopter of sous vide cooking, and over time, he has become one of the foremost experts on the subject. In the glory days of the sprawling culinary forum eGullet (see links under “Further Reading”), he was a sous vide guru to countless curious cooks, generously sharing his pioneering time-and-temperature tables, food safety tips, and other insights. Now Douglas brings his mathematical muscle to predictive-cooking projects that promise to revolutionize the way we cook.Let’s be clear: this new tool is possible only thanks to the groundbreaking egg-viscosity work of food scientist César Vega (more on that later). And simple as it looks, it took serious mathematics, not to mention some seriously messy viscosity trials, to develop a technology that allows users to achieve eggs of any desired texture. Want fudgy yolks and runny whites? Runny yolks and custardy whites? Jammy yolks and tender whites? Whatever you’re after, this tool can help you achieve it by determining the precise time and temperature needed to make your perfect consistency happen. Below, we’ve shared the full story behind this exciting new invention, so sit down and have a read if you like. Then get ready to cook up some killer eggs.