Whether they're boiled, poached, scrambled or churned into ice cream, as sure as eggs is eggs, Heston's will be perfect every time
1. The secret to the perfect boiled egg is... don't boil it! You'll end up with rubbery whites or undercooked yolks. Instead, put your egg in a pan of cold water, bring up to the boil, and, the moment it starts boiling, take it off the heat and leave in the pan for six minutes. The residual heat will cook it gently, leaving the yolk nicely cooked, but runny.
2. For good poaching, your eggs need to be fresh. Test them out by dropping a whole egg in to water - a fresh egg will sink, an old egg will float.
3. For the perfect poached egg, there's no need to create a whirlpool or add vinegar to the water. But do lay a plate on the bottom of your pan to protect the egg from the direct heat of the hob, and strain off any stringy white before poaching.
4. Buy a thermometer! You want the water at 80°C for perfect poaching.
5. Mayo is easy, don't be afraid. Heston managed to add a whopping litre and a half of oil to one yolk before the mixture split - seven times what most recipes advise.
6. Keep the yolk in your Scotch egg runny by only half-boiling them (off the heat for 3 mins) then dunking them in ice water to stop them cooking, before peeling and coating in the sausage meat.
7. Forget hot pans or the microwave. For truly silky scrambled eggs, cook them low and slow over a bain marie for about 15 minutes.
8. When making a lemon tart, use coins instead of baking beans when you bake your pastry blind - coins will conduct the heat better, for a crisper finish.
9. There's no need for the wobble test! Simply check the centre of your tart filling with a thermometer and take it out of the oven when it reaches 70°C.
10. Too impatient to wait for an ice cream maker to freeze your mix? Use dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) to turn your custard to ice cream in less than a minute.
Image: Angela Moore, Art Direction: Graphic Thought Facility
