If the perfect boiled egg has a meltingly soft centre and firm white, scientists have developed the perfect method. Alas, it takes 32 minutes.

All jokes about the cost of eggs aside, we finally know how to make the perfect hard-boiled egg. Amid high egg prices due to a bird flu outbreak and following an election where “egg-flation” was a crucial issue,

Scientists say they’ve cracked the code for boiling the perfect egg. Making an ideal boiled egg is a challenge because the yolk cooks at a lower temperature than the whites.