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
Question for step 3: is that 8:30-9:00 AM or PM?
Yes
The correct way to hardboil eggs is actually to steam them, which is what the majority of the world does (have you ever seen someone selling hardboiled eggs? They are usually in a steam container). If you time it right, you don’t even need the ice bath to achieve an easy peel egg (though this takes practice lol).
Boiling is just a alternative method that is slightly less effective but very common because not everyone keeps a steamer basket at home.
That’s a hard steamed egg, though…
Yup. I have pots with pressure cooker lids, and I just add a tiny but of water in the bottom and basically just steam them for 6 or 7 minutes. Even if I get distracted they are usually still easily peeled and just barely soft in the middle.
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.
Agreed, ice bath is only important for me if eggs are super fresh, which makes them harder to peel, or if I need them to stop cooking fast, like if I am making soft boiled eggs or have the sudden realization I started boiling the eggs and walked off at least five minutes ago but neglected to set a timer.
I’m not ADHD, you’re ADHD!
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
With my method you won’t have hard to peel eggs regardless of if they were fresh or not
This is how we do it. Works great!
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
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.
I should say that the main goal of this method is to make eggs that you can peel the shells off of very easily, whether or not the eggs are very fresh. If the eggs you buy don’t have problems peeling then this method might not be the best for you.
You need to account for elevation. A lot of recipes get it wrong because people in very different atmospheres of pressure try the same methods without adjusting for that important factor
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.
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
If you want to keep your eggs from cracking from the temperature shock, put them in a bowl, fill the bowl with the hottest water you can get from the tap and let it sit for a minute before you put the eggs in the boiling water. Unless you have some crazy volcano of a hot water heater, the tap doesn’t get hot enough to crack the shell, but will warm the shell up uniformly to much warmer than you’d get hovering the egg, or doing that weird thing where you try to lower the egg into the water a teeny tiny bit at a time.
Someone should make a book called “Life. Beginner’s guide” and put stuff like that 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!
I don’t have a twin, so I’ll never have perfect eggs. 😞
The temperature of boiling water depends on your altitude. Water boils at 212F (100C) Miami but only 202F (94C) in Denver. This makes a big difference when boiling eggs. It’s why specific times for boiling eggs are so unreliable for people from different altitudes.
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.
Times are irrelevant, get yourself an egg timer.
