Can't boil an egg? Russian scientists create a CARTON that'll help you make the perfect one in two minutes without water



It contains layers of chemicals that produce heat when activated

The egg sits inside and is ready to eat in half the time it takes in water

If you've ever tried to peel a hard-boiled egg only to find it’s definitely more suited to soldiers, help is at hand.

Designers have invented a clever cardboard box that cooks the egg inside perfectly – without a saucepan in sight.

The packaging contains a chemical layer which, when triggered, generates heat and cooks the raw egg in just two minutes.

Science: The eggs sits inside the gogol mogol and when the brown tab is pulled chemicals inside react and cook it in two minutes

It means even the busiest of workers – and the most amateur of cooks – will once again be able to ‘go to work on an egg’.

The ‘Gogol Mogol’, named after a Russian egg dish, was created by a Russian team of inventors known as KIAN, and designed by Evgeny Morgalev.

The outer layer is made from the sort of paperboard traditionally used to make egg boxes.

Beneath this there are three more layers. One is infused with calcium hydroxide and other chemicals, and the other is a ‘smart layer’ containing water.



Science: This diagram explains how in a flash goes from raw to boiled

Between these two inner layers is a membrane which is removed by pulling a cardboard tab. Once this is taken out, the calcium hydroxide reacts with the water in the smart layer to generate enough heat to cook the egg inside.

The technology has been used in the past to create self-heating cans of sausages and beans, which are popular with campers.

But this is the first time that designers have been able to apply the chemical heat generation, known as an exothermic reaction, to an egg.

Although the egg is cooked after just two minutes, the heating process inside the packaging will continue for up to three minutes.

Depending on when they decide to twist off the cardboard cap, users can go for a runny or hard-boiled yolk.



Either way, it’s a fraction of the time it takes to boil a pan of water then wait four minutes for it to cook.



The Gogol Mogol cannot be reused and must be thrown away after a single use, but has been created out of recycled materials to reduce waste.

It won its designers an award from the European Packaging Design Association.

A spokesman for KIAN said: ‘The product is just a usual egg in an unusual package, possessing unique product properties.

‘The time for preparing eggs should be a couple of minutes and after cooking eggs the package should be thrown away, it’s impossible to use it more than one time.

‘It uses calcium hydroxide and water, so when the components come together a large amount of heat appears.

‘Under the cardboard layer is a catalyst and a membrane, which separates the catalyst from a smart material.

‘When you pull out the membrane by stretching a tag, the chemical reaction between the catalyst and a smart material begins, and the egg begins to heat up.’

The technology has worked during trials, but no food company has yet come forward to make it available to shoppers.

Result: Two minutes later - half the time it takes usually - the egg can be taken out of the packaging and eaten















