The Russian design agency Kian has come up with a curious new design concept that's part egg carton, part cooking innovation. The "Gogol Mogol"—named after a Russian egg dish with many variations, the most common being egg yolks whipped stiff with sugar—is a self-cooking individual egg carton made from recycled paperboard, featuring multiple layers of conducive material.


The egg-cooking chemical reaction begins when the exterior tag is pulled, grenade-like, thus removing the membrane and commencing a chemical reaction between the catalyst and the "smart material." Give it a few minutes, then pop open the container: Voila! A perfectly cooked, boiled egg.

Mostly, we are very excited about this design concept and want to try it out right now for our dinners. But we have a few questions, still.


Chief among which are:

•What's the egg threshold for boiling to be more effective in comparison to this packaging?

•Is there any possibility for food contamination, in the slim space between the egg container and the chemical reaction occurring within?

•Is this cost effective?

•Is this soft-boil specific, as the prototype image seems to suggest?

•With individual cartons for each egg, rather than a few eggs sharing a single pot of water, can this possible be eco friendly?

•What is our time worth?

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Gogol Mogol was the winner of a design contest held in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the EPDA (European Packaging Design Association) and is not yet available in a commercial capacity—though, despite our hesitations and hangups, we very much hope it soon will be. [IndustryIntel, PDA-Europe]