Whenever I boil eggs, they always seem to come apart in big chuncks when I peel them. What am I doing wrong?
Don’t use the freshest eggs. Also, let them cool completely, in cold water, and peel them under running water, if possible.
Older eggs, and chill them in ice water before peeling. Them lightly crack the shell all over. (I use my ring for this.) Roll the egg between your palms, breaking and loosening the shell. Then peel.
What Cher said. Don’t use fresh eggs. Older eggs peel easier.
Unlike Cher, I’d say if you must use fresh eggs, wear some sort of gloves that will protect your hands from the heat, and try to peel them while hot. Whenever I cool fresh eggs, the shells stick.
What is the universally-agreed upon time to hard-boil eggs, then? I’ve heard everything from 12 to 20 minutes, but I want to make some perfect egg salad, and I’d love to get it exactly right.
My method: put eggs in cold water. Bring to a boil. Boil 10-12 minutes, then plunge eggs into ice water.
I go three minutes for soft boiled, five minutes for hard boiled. I’ll be honest though, I often go 6-8 minutes for hard boiled, just to be sure. That’s starting with cold eggs in cold water, and the cooking time starts when the water starts to boil. I crank the heat up, so there’s no dilly-dallying about the water coming to a boil.
I made some a couple days ago, and did it for 8 minutes. they were a little undone in the middle, the yellow was a different color.
Mine are hard to peel too.
Joy of Cooking says that you’ll get perfect eggs if you let the water come to a gentle boil and then lower the eggs in and boil them for 14 minutes. That’s what we do, and the eggs either cook through exactly or they have a tiny dot of moist yolk in the middle. The white isn’t rubbery, and there’s no layer of greeny gray; they’re great.
Daniel
I do silenus’s method.
Also, if you stir the water a few times as they’re cooking, that will center the yokes – esp. nice if you’re going to make deviled eggs.
I seem to recall something about starting with room temperature eggs but I can’t remember if that was to make them easy to peel or prevent that greenish ring around the yolk.
I do it like my mom did:
Start with the eggs in a pot of COLD water. Bring it to a boil. Let boil for 10 minutes. Put the pot under the running cold faucet to chill them quickly.
Viola.
I always found eggs easier to peel while they’re still fairly warm. I crack them a little to get it started and roll them on the countertop to crack them all over. When you peel them, make sure you get the membrane underneath. (Try it, you’ll see what I mean.)
For hard boiled eggs, I use cold eggs in cold water and bring them to a boil (not too fast so it doesn’t crack the eggs) and then simmer them close to boiling for 15 minutes.
I don’t know about this old egg young egg thing. Never thought about it (I guess I will now 
). But the only time I’ve had a hard time peeling eggs is when I didn’t boil them long enough. Which I’ve always found to be at least 15 minutes.
(And when I’ve inadvertently left them on longer they didn’t seem any worse for it, so I usually err on the side of overcooking…I hate when the yolk isn’t really done.)
So, that and the cold water after…
Also, before boiling the egg, use a push pin to put a little hole in the broad end of the egg. I forget why I do this.
That’s the way I was taught too. It’s to let the expanding gas exit the egg. This keeps the egg from getting that dent in one side. I’ve always been able to get perfectly boiled eggs by this method, whether I start in cold water, boiling water, peel them hot, cold, under water, etc.
I’m a firm believer in the Alton Brown method. Use a steamer basket. Bring the water to a boil, drop the steamer filled with eggs over the top. Cover and steam for 12 minutes, then shock immediately in a ice bath.
I second that. I always steam em’… I happen to have a steamer (countertop plastic basket thingy)… I add the requites amount of cold eggs, set it for 12 minutes… at the ding (it “dings” when done you see) I remove the eggs directly into an ice bath… the ice bath (with the eggs) go into the fridge for 10 minutes or so. Peeling is accomplished thanks to the afore mentioned Cook’s illustrated method… rolling the eggs around on the counter to completely smash the shell (this takes a bit of practice if you are a clumsy lummox… like me). the resulting eggs are perfect every time… tender, no green yolk, and easy to peel. I prefer to use fresh eggs as they taste better… I’ve not found a correlation to freshness and pealability using this method.
So what is it that makes the outside of the yolk turn green? This has always been a mystery to me. Sometimes they turn out green, sometimes not. I always use the same method. I’m going to try the steaming method.
Oh- I like the center of the yolk slightly wet. How many minutes should I cut off for this to happen?