Recipie for hard-boil Eggs?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Seriously. My Blessed Granny would bring the water to a boil, carefully put the eggs in, then boil them for an indeterminate length of time - depending on what was on TV, and how many Martinis she’d had. The eggs would always crack and leak, and they’d be all rubbery and farty-tasting when she made egg-salad sandwiches.

My mum never boiled a single egg that I can recall.

I just asked my wife. Here’s the exchange…

Me: Honey? How do you hard-boil eggs?
Her: WHAT?!?
Me: Um. Ahem. How do you hard-boil eggs?
Her: Oh. Sorry. I though you said ‘Why didn’t you hard-boil the eggs?’ (My wife often speaks in Italics)
Me: Huh?
Her: What?!?
Me: What?
Her: Huh?
Me: How do you hard-boil eggs?
Her: You just put them in the water and boil them!
Me: Yes, but for how long?
Her: What?!? I don’t know!! (See!?)
Me: Never mind.

You get the idea. So how do I accomplish this seemingly simple task? I tried to google it, but in the Cooking Community it seems to be assumed that everyone knows how to boil a damned egg.

Everyone but me, at least.

#2

I put the egg in cold water. Turn the stove on hight until the water boils. Then turn it down to a simmer and cover. Simmer for about 5 minutes for a soft boiled egg and about 12 for a hard boiled egg.

#3

If you’re doing more than a few at once, say if you’re making a batch of deviled eggs or egg salad, then I usually boil them a bit longer. About 20 minutes. And the higher the boil, the more they seem to crack–not a problem for egg salad, but not that ideal for easter eggs.

#4

I put the eggs in just enough cold water to cover them a little, put 'em on the stove over medium-high heat and then wait for the water to boil. Once that happens, I cover the pot and turn off the heat. The eggs will cook to hard-boiled in about 15 minutes this way, but I usually just let them cool on the stove and then either peel 'em or put them in the fridge, depending on what I am going to use them for.

#5

I put the egg in cold water, bring it to a boil, leave it boiling for 5 - 10 minutes, then turn the heat off. I then leave the egg in the pot until the water is cool enough for me to put my hand in to take the egg out.

#6

Oh, I meant to add my favorite boiled-egg trick. Throw some dry onion skins into the water. It doesn’t affect the taste at all, but it makes the shells a nice golden color so that you can easily tell them apart from the raw eggs in your fridge.

#7

Drat. I forgot to mention that the reason I boil my eggs the way I do is to avoid cracking the shells - if they get too much of a chance to bounce around (by adding too much water or letting them boil too long/too vigorously) you increase the chance of cracking.

#8

Apparently, if you take them out right at the end of cooking and plunge them into cold water, this prevents the outside of the yolk from turning that greenish-grey colour (although I’ve never really bothered to test this empirically).

#9

Put the cold eggs in cold water, bring to boiling over about 5-10 minutes (trying to avoid sharp temp changes to let the eggs warm up), then boil for about 8 to 15 minutes, depending on desired done-ness. Overcooked boiled eggs have a grey ring on the yolks. If they are coming out grey you can reduce the boiling time a little. Always do a few extra for later, too. Noone wants one until you make them, then they want yours.
Now my question- why are some eggs easily peelable and some not?

#10

Put some salt in the boiling water. That way if a shell cracks, the white coagulates faster and seals off the opening and you lose less egg.

Otherwise I do it like romansperson does. Except that I run cold water into the pot after 15 minutes, to stop the cooking process and keep the yolks from turning green.

#11

Update! Damn! A shell cracked!!!

Life! Why you mock me?

#12

The alternative being that tricky spin-them-on-a-hard-surface-then-stop-them-briefly trick.

#13

this seems like a pretty good explanation - fond it in google by typing “how to hard boil an egg” (quotation marks included)

http://www.chefted.com/pages/eggs.html

#14

The fresher the egg, the tougher it is to peel.

#15

This is funny. I just hard-boiled eggs for the first time last week. I was testing out my new pasta pot (yes, the thing you see advertised in DR spots on TV). Hadda call mom to find out how long I should boil the eggs.

#16

Update! I brought the water to a boil, then simmered for about 10 minutes, now they’re sitting in the water as it cools. I’ll take them out in another 6 minutes, (total 10 minutes sitting) and let you know how they turned out around 12:30.

Mmmm. Fresh Egg Salad Sandwiches!

#17

now i’m hungry!

#18

Usually I start by boiling the water, then add the eggs by spooning them in (rather than dropping them in) - less chance of cracking.

For runny yolk boil for 3-4 minutes.
For soft yolks boil for 5 minutes.
For mostly soft but not runny boil for 6 minutes.
For completely dead yolks boil for 10 minutes.

If you knock them at both ends peeling will be easier as it allows air in under the shell.

Enjoy! :slight_smile:

#19

What’s the secret of getting hard-boiled eggs to peel easily?

#20

You may laugh, but I have to look up the instructions for hard-boiling eggs in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook every single time. Every time.