It's an egg cooked slowly at a very precise temperature (from 60C to 65C) to achieve a high-impact result: a shimmering, silky orb of creamy egg white surrounding a rich, softly liquid egg yolk.
Forget your three-minute egg; this can take anything up to two hours.
Where is it?
At Surry Hill's Bodega, a 62 degree egg is served with buttermilk pancake, salt cod and smoked maple butter, while at the French-influenced Ananas in The Rocks, chef Jerome Lagarde serves a 65 degree free-range egg on a bed of smoked cream, asparagus, sauteed porcini and jamon.
At Rockpool Bar & Grill, the slow-cooked hen's egg comes with brioche, bone marrow and a red wine butter sauce.
"We cook them for 120 minutes at 60 degrees and then drop the temperature to 55 degrees and hold them," explains Neil Perry. "The white starts setting at 60 degrees and the yolk at 65 degrees, so you can play with different times and different temperatures to get what you want."
Why do I care?
Because chefs from Britain's Heston Blumenthal to Spain's Andoni Luis Aduriz consider it ''the perfect egg''. Because it's very impressive served over hot-smoked salmon, grilled tuna, new-season asparagus or baked beans and sausages. Or just because it gives you more time to get the toast on and the coffee made.
Can I do it at home?
For precise results, you need an immersion circulator, the temperature-controlled water bath used by chefs. Failing that, you can still have fun experimenting with an instant-read cook's thermometer (about $6), a big pot, and a simmer pad, but it's a bit hit and miss.
Sourcing it
Bodega
216 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills, 9212 7766
Ananas
18 Argyle Street, The Rocks Phone, 9259 5668
Rockpool Bar & Grill
66 Hunter Street, Sydney 8078 1900
Slow-cooked egg and jamon on toast
5 x 65g eggs, room temperature
1 garlic clove, roughly crushed
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 thick slices sourdough bread
8 slices jamon or prosciutto
4 tbsp chervil or microcress
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
1. Heat water in a large saucepan or stockpot until a cook's thermometer reads 60C to 62C. Place a saucer on the bottom to stop the eggs from gathering on the base, where the temperature is highest.
2. Carefully add the eggs and cook for 50 minutes, keeping the temperature constant. Remove a ''test'' egg, crack in half, and slide on to a warm plate. The white should be soft, translucent and jelly-like, and the yolk still gently runny. If not yet cooked, give the others another five to 10 minutes.
3. To serve, stir the garlic into the olive oil. Grill the sourdough bread, brush with the garlicky olive oil, and top with folds of jamon and lots of chervil. Arrange egg on top, drizzle with remaining olive oil, scatter with sea salt and pepper and serve.
Recipe note on timing and temperature:
I tried everything from cooking the eggs for 1 minute a gram (for example, a 60-gram egg for 60 minutes) to varying the temperature from 60C to 64C. While the whites were beautifully translucent, the yolks went one stage past runny. Try it yourself, or master the traditional poached egg instead.
Serves 4
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