Step 1: Boil a pot of water to a full boil, it should take about 8-9 minutes
Step 2: Use a spoon to put the eggs in one at a time, but hover each one just above the water for about 5 seconds before gently putting it in. This prevents the shells from cracking due to shock of the hot water.
Step 3: Set a timer for 8:30-9:00
Step 4: While the eggs are cooking, get a bowl filed with ice water
Step 5: When timer goes off, put the eggs but not the hot water in the ice water. Let them sit for about 45 seconds. This step will make sure the egg shells peel off of the egg without sticking
Step 6: Remove the eggs from the ice water. I like to do this before they cool down much, so they are still warm when I eat them.
I’ve looked at dozens of articles online that don’t work. This combines two methods and adds some improvements. If you put the eggs in and then bring the water to a boil the shells stick when you try to peel them. If you don’t hover the egg over the hot water for a few seconds some eggs will crack and raw egg fills the water. If you don’t put the eggs in ice water they will be tough to peel. I like to eat boiled eggs with salt and pepper and I put mustard on the side of the plate to dip them in, tastes like a deviled egg.
enjoy
This is such an odd post. So many details that are highly debatable, not many important details.
For example, is the egg refrigerated or room temperature? That changes the timing a lot. Talking about accurate timing is pointless without at least some idea of the initial temperature.
I don’t use a ice bath, or any kind of cooling down for hardboiled eggs. I don’t really have a problem peeling them, unless they are very fresh.
Someone should make a book called “Life. Beginner’s guide” and put stuff like that there.
I guess everyone has their own way of boiling an egg!
I’ve been very happy with the steamed egg method. I put a steamer basket in a pot with just enough water that it touches the bottom of the basket, bring it to boil and then put as many eggs as I want in to the basket using a pair of tongs with silicone grippies. I set a timer for 11min, put it on medium heat, cover the pot and set up an ice bath. After 11min the eggs go in the ice bath for a minute or two and I crack them and roll them on a cutting board to loosen the shells. They come out exactly how I like them with a golden yolk with a soft orange center and the shells are super easy to peel as long as I get my thumb under the membrane.
I’ve made them this way with fresh eggs, week old eggs, month old eggs, home chicken eggs, storebought eggs, and never had issues with peeling.
If you have an instant pot or something similar, pressure cooking eggs using a 5-5-5 method is also super great.
Put the eggs in a steamer tray or little rack- as long as they’re not touching the bottom. Pour in a cup of water, then seal the lid and make sure it’s not set to venting. Set it to cook on high pressure for 5 minutes (I do 4, actually because I like it a little jammy in the yolk).
It takes ~5 min for the pressure to come up, 5 min cook time, then you give 5 min for the pressure to naturally come down before venting and taking eggs out to put in cool water.
I’ve personally never used an ice bath and my eggs come out gorgeous every time.
We do 6 minutes cook time then vent immediately and put in cold water. Works great.
Question for step 3: is that 8:30-9:00 AM or PM?
It’s 8:30-9, not 20:30-21.
Yes
This is a slow coop top, for us it takes below 2 minutes to heat a liter of water to boil the eggs in. Also we just use a fake plastic egg that shows you until where the egg is raw. Which works quire wonderfull no matter how you start boiling an egg
As a site note. For 550s (8-9min) and 1 Liter of water needing around 330.000 J to boil. Your using an 650W device to heat the water?
Induction hobs are wonderful. 🙂 Boiling a full pot of water is just a few minutes or less depending on size.
Frying pans are hot enough to start frying within seconds (like 10–20 seconds).
Highly recommend it if you ever have the opportunity to switch from the ancient style hobs.
My problem is the lack of control. They tend to be digital devices, not analog, so I always find myself wanting a heat level between settings…
With the old style hobs, usually each heater has 6, 9, or 12 steps.
These induction hobs we have have 14 steps plus a P(ower) step for extremely fast heating, for a total of 15 steps. It’s even more granular than before, even if the highest steps are hotter than the old style hobs. 🙂👍
Its been proven the shells sticking depends on the age of the egg. Older is less sticky. The cooling down part is about stopping the egg to continue getting harder which is not relevant if you want them hard boiled anyways. Instead of hovering you can use a pin and put a small hole in the shell instead, but that sometimes results in some eggwhite escaping until it plugs the hole.
I use a pressure cooking when doing hard boiled eggs, I’ve found regardless of the egg age they are always easier to peel.
I put a liter on the induction top at max temp for 1-2 minutes so the water is at full boil, then turn the temperature down to 7, use a spoon to drop the eggs down as I put a timer for 6 or 7 minutes depending on the size of the eggs.
Result is a perfectly semi hard boiled result, and breakfast is served in less than 10 minutes.
Set a timer for 8:30-9:00
My sleepy ass at 8:99: 😪😪
It’s even easier than that
- put eggs in cold water
- bring to a boil then turn off
- cover and let sit for X minutes based on chart
- then sit in ice water for 10-15 minutes
Hard to peel eggs just means it’s fresh. Older eggs peel easier
My tired brain thought these were images of omelettes on a plate, not a cross section of egg
Eggs will be easier to peel regardless of age if you drop them into boiling water water instead of cooking from cold. It causes the whites nearest to the shell to cook quickly and pull away from the shell.
If I recall correctly it’s because the proteins in the whites go through two phases as they cook. First they relax like spring partial uncoiling and then they either tighten back up and tangle with each other like, or they cross link with each other like a polymer (I forget which). Regardless of the exact mechanism, if you cook them fast enough, the proteins in the whites bind with each other before they have the chance to settle down and bond significantly with the shell lining.
If one really wants perfect, they should read Periodic cooking of eggs from the journal Nature earlier this year. Everybody that has implemented it, claims it works great.
For the periodic method, scientists alternated submerging the eggs for two minutes in boiling water at 100 C (212 F) and lukewarm water at 30 C (86 F). This cycle was repeated eight times for 32 minutes.
— from: Scientists developed a new method for the perfect boiled egg, and you can test it at home
I’m sure it works, but its it’s not the only way to to cook a perfect egg. And it is hilariously inefficient both in terms of energy spent to boil water for 32 minutes, and effort required to direct one’s focus primarily to boiling eggs for 32 minutes (plus prep time).
What is funny to me is that this process is just pulse width modulation which is exactly how electric stoves work. But instead of applying the duty cycle to the water to keep it at a steady sub-boil temperature, they applied it to directly to the egg to even out the temperature gradient inside the egg.
You achieve a very similar result by just doing a 2 minute flash boil to set the outer whites and then dropping the temperature with cold water or ice and just walking away while a sous vide stick controls an even temperature for the rest of the time. Now, I don’t have a sous vide stick, but I did get a variable temperature electric kettle for tea, so I have been using that for several years now.
What makes the periodic method consistent and ripe for virality is:
- It reduces the impact of the most common unregulated variables: like pot size, burner power, egg:water ratio; it uses self regulating temperatures; and it’s hard to forget about the eggs since you are constantly monitoring them.
- It is accessible. It doesn’t require any special equipment and it is easy to remember: 2-in, 2-out, x8.
Jesus Christ, you can produce a Q1 article with nothing but math and a bunch of eggs?
I really need to up my publishing standards.
P.S. Of course they got some fancy measuring equipment in there
Or just wait for your identical twin to buy a device that does six eggs at a time! It’s what I did.
This, however, makes way more than 6 eggs so it’s really good for when I need to make a bunch of deviled eggs, thanks!
Since time depends on egg size, I just use an app:
https://github.com/woheller69/eggtimer?tab=readme-ov-file#smart-eggtimer
There’s an app for everything, ain’t it?
I remember seeing an app that just allowed you to set one of three timers corresponding to one of three teas you may want to brew.
At this rate, it’s easier to memorize.
it’s easier to memorize when you always buy eggs of the same caliber.
I just sort and weight mybeggs before cooking, so the formula’s useful.
*chefs kiss* Now this is a qwuality irony post. 12 quail eggs out of 10 🙏
Times are irrelevant, get yourself an egg timer.
