How to fry an egg on an XP !!

[AND1]

How to fry an egg on an XP !!

[flaninacupboard]

bizarre. wonder if that would work with my 2600?

[Cobra]

How hot does a pan need to be to fry an egg?

[flaninacupboard]

come on boy, you know that! at what tempertaure do proteins de-nature?

[Cobra]

It depends on the protein. The protein that egg white is made up of is albumen (specifically ovalbumen):

http://albumen.stanford.edu/library/c20/messier1991a.html

I can't find what temperature albumen denatures at, but it does say on that site that ovalbumen resists thermal denaturation.

I'll maybe find out sometime soon, but I really must get working for this last exam...

Cobra

[flaninacupboard]

well it can resist for some time, but eventually relents! RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. i would imagine a constant heat of 45 would be enough to do he trick on a long enough time scale.

If you've never seen the TV show "Look Around You" i suggest you track it down - very funny.

[Cobra]

That's not the case. Proteins are long chains of molecules folded into very specific shapes, held together by various forces such as hydrogen bonds and disulphide bridges. When you heat a protein, these bonds are stressed due to increased energy in the molecules making up the protein. At a certain temperature, these bonds will break and the protein will lose shape (denature). Below that temperature bonds may break by chance, but not many.

[flaninacupboard]

ok, i'll admit you know more than me (who doesn't!) so if i get a chance i'll try cooking an egg at 45c

[Cobra]

Go for it!

[offline]

A longer but simpler view:

An amino acid is a small molecule that acts as the building block of any cell.
Amino acids provide cells with the building material they need to grow and maintain their structure

A Protein is a linked chain of these amino acids. These amino-acid strings fold back on themselves and are held weakly to the chain at various points. WHen you heat an
egg, the grip is shaken apart causing the whole business to unfold. When unfolded, the
heat assists these amino-acids to stick together in a different way that is much
stonger. Water surrounding these amino-acids when the egg was gooey is now
forced out and the egg becomes hard.

You can do the same thing without heat. Just add vodka and vinegar. The yoke will not
be the same as it has a lot of fat in it.

PS: at 45c the egg will cook but it will become like rubber because more time
is allowed to form new stonger sticky points. In other words I'd say
his lunch tasted like shite - despite the brown sauce.

[flaninacupboard]

so he had a poached egg, not a fried egg?