Biology Performance Task

2010
Choy Yun Zhen
315
Myth

Boiling eggs by throwing it in boiling water for an extended period of time makes the egg
“rubbery”

Investigative Question

Will boiling eggs for an extended period of time cause the egg white’s texture to become more
“rubbery”?

Hypothesis

The longer an egg is boiled, the more rubbery its texture will be.

Background Research

Hard-boiled eggs are one of the hardest things to cook and the method to cooking perfect hard-
boiled eggs remains elusive as every egg is different and there’s no sure way to come up with a
perfect formula to cooking hard-boiled eggs. Often, the problem lies in accidentally overcooking
eggs as man still enjoy undercooked eggs also known as soft-boiled eggs. When overcooking an
egg, it is said that the egg white will become “rubbery” and unpleasant. The recommended
cooking time for hard-boiled eggs is 10-15 minutes. For this experiment, I would define
“rubbery” as being more chewy than a regular hard-boiled egg.

Materials

 4 eggs
 1 cooking pot
 1 timer
 Water
 Pencil

Investigation Method

1) Label the eggs A, B, C and D with a pencil

2) Fill the cooking pot with water till a level where it will cover more than three quarters of an
egg
3) Leave the water to boil
4) When the water boils, put egg A inside gently, making sure not to crack the egg. Leave the
cover of the cooking pot on, to minimise water lost
5) After 5 minutes, put egg B inside gently
6) After another 5 minutes, put egg C inside gently
7) After another 5 minutes, put egg D inside gently
8) After 10 minutes, remove all the eggs
9) Eat the egg and observe the eggs’ relative “rubberyness” of its texture and record down
observations

Independent Variable
 Period of time for which eggs are boiled

Dependent Variable

“Rubberyness” of texture of egg white

Controlled Variables

Temperature of water (100C)

Eggs come from same egg farm

Data

Because the experiment’s results is a set of qualitative data and not quantitative data, in order to
make it more reliable, 5 other people were asked to eat and test the egg white too and on a scale
of 1-10, rate the “rubberyness” or the “chewiness” of the egg white, with 10 being very rubbery
and 5 being the default rating for egg C.

 Eggs A (25 mins) B (20 mins) C (15 mins) D (10 mins)

Me 6 6 5 4
Person 1 6 6 5 5
Person 2 7 6 5 4
Person 3 6 5 5 5
Person 4 6 6 5 5
Average 6.2 5.8 5 4.6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
D C B A

The black marks in the scale above indicate the rating of the relative rubberyness of each egg and
show how the eggs differ in their relative rubberyness according to the length of time for which
they were boiled.

Data Analysis

As can be seen, the eggs do follow a certain trend, where the longer the eggs are cooked, the
more “rubbery” they are. However this increased “rubberyness” was actually merely a slight
increase in the toughness of the egg white and did not actually result in the egg being more
chewy. It is undeniable that the period of time for which an egg is boiled will affect the egg’s
texture, however in this case, the difference is very small and negligible.

When an egg is heated, its protein molecules unfold and form new bonds, creating a new protein
network but with water molecules. As the egg continues to cook in boiling water, the protein
network tightens and squeezes out the moisture causing the egg to become opaque. The longer
the egg is cooked, the tighter the network will be and the less moisture in the egg.
 This is why eggs that are cooked for longer periods of time tend to be tougher in texture as there
is lesser moisture in the eggs.

However, the eggs were not “rubbery” if defined as “chewy”. The perception of an overcooked
hard-boiled egg as “rubbery” may instead be due to the increased toughness of the egg’s texture.

Limitations

Ideally, for the experiment, every egg should have the same properties, but that is not possible as
nothing is produced identical in Nature, and the best that we can do is to use eggs from the same
egg farm as this would minimise the extent to which the eggs are different. Because of this
natural inconsistency within each egg, the kind of egg produced and the eventual “rubberyness”
may also be affected. However, we have to assume that this difference in every egg is negligible
and will not affect the results on a whole.

The perception of “rubbery” by each person is also very different. The feeling of a “rubbery” egg
white texture is very subjective. This subjectiveness within every individual may also cause the
results to be inaccurate. To solve this, I used relative results with Egg C as the benchmark for
“rubberyness” and asked family members to also give me their opinion on the eggs’ relative
“rubberyness” using a number scale.

Conclusion

Overcooking a hard-boiled egg for too long may cause the egg white’s texture to become slightly
tougher due to the decrease in moisture content. However, this difference in the egg white’s
toughness is very small and negligible.