poached egg, polenta

Well, isn't this precious. I inhaled this ridiculous thing is under twenty seconds. 

This makes a meal of leftover polenta -- fine! -- cornmeal grits made yesterday to adhere the salmon balls that approximated hushpuppies. Now that was amazing. I'm going to do it again, except I'll keep the insides pink next time because as I gazed upon the corn and salmon paste I stood there thinking, "Damn, you sure are purdy. The laydeez will really like this. " 

But don't ever do this poached egg on a polenta disc for any kind of gathering ↑. You'll make yourself the laughingstock of all your mates and you'll never live it down. It's extraordinarily pissy. 

But in case you just want to mess around in the privacy of your own home, secure from withering ridiculing japes of your compatriots, then go on and be sure to spray the cling film with vegetable oil before dropping in the egg or else it might not come out intact. 

Know what this reminds me of ↓?  Come on, guess. It reminds me of a raw egg in cling film sac, you perv. 

Here's the deal-io: egg white begins to denature, turn from opaque to white at 144℉ / 62℃. 

But it does not go }}}} zing {{{{  WHITE at that target temperature, rather it begins to turn white and proceeds slowly to completely turn when held at that precise temperature for, say, an hour until it finally fully turns. At higher temperature over time it becomes rubbery, and we don't like that. 

Egg yolk begins to set at 146℉ / 63℃ and changes very slowly only becoming noticeable at 149℉ / 66℃, and then fully set at 158℉ / 70℃, over time. 

If you were to hold an egg at 145℉ / 62.5℃ for an hour then, the white would set but the yolk would remain unset because it never gets to the temperature where the proteins denature. They remain in their natural state until you kick up the heat a notch. 

So, the ideal internal temperature for a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg is 146℉ / 63℃. But who wants to wait around for an hour or more while an egg sits warming in a precisely modulated sous vide until the internal temperature of the egg finally reaches the ideal target temperature and held there long enough for the full chemical transformation to complete, with great care not to exceed the target temperature? Not me, that's for sure. Fuck that. 

This transformation is begun well below the temperature of boiling water. The temperature continues to drop off the heat, but it never drops below the temperature that denatures egg white. This is a completely unreasonable way to cook an egg for anyone other than a maniac or perhaps someone with a lot of extra time on their hands with no immediate demands, and perhaps not especially hungry.