About
Who runs this site, where the cooking times come from, and why they are calculated rather than copied from a chart.
Most cooking time advice assumes one situation: one egg size, one starting temperature, one altitude. Change any of those and the number is wrong, which is why so many people follow a recipe exactly and still get a chalky yolk.
This site calculates the time for the situation you are actually in.
Where the egg times come from
They are not copied from a chart. They come from the thermal diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams at the University of Exeter, which models how long heat takes to reach the centre of the yolk given the egg's mass, its starting temperature, and the temperature of the water.
The raw equation assumes the water sits at a perfect 100 °C. Real pans do not, because dropping cold eggs in knocks the temperature down and it takes a while to recover. So the model is calibrated: a large fridge cold egg at sea level is tuned to land on the times cooks actually use, and everything else follows from the physics.
That is what lets the calculator handle things a chart cannot. Altitude works because water boils cooler when there is less air pressure above it. Duck, quail and goose eggs work because the equation takes a mass rather than looking up "large" in a table.
It also means the site will tell you when something is not possible. Above roughly 5,450 metres water never gets hot enough to set a yolk fully, and no amount of extra time changes that.
Where the air fryer times come from
There is no equivalent equation for air fryers, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing. Wattage, basket size and airflow vary enormously between models, so two machines set to the same temperature can finish minutes apart.
Those pages carry tested starting points instead, along with the internal temperature the food needs to reach. For meat the thermometer is the answer and the clock is only an estimate. The pages say so plainly rather than pretending to a precision that does not exist.
Honesty about limits
The numbers here are good starting points, not guarantees. Pans differ, hobs differ, and two eggs from the same box can differ. If a result is not quite right for your kitchen, adjust by fifteen or thirty seconds and it will be.
If you find something wrong, please say so. Corrections are welcome and they get made.
Who runs it
This site is run by Philipp Eiselt, working alone. It is not a company and there is no team behind it.
It is funded by advertising, which is what keeps it free and free of sign ups. Questions, corrections and complaints all go to [email protected].