Everything you need to know about boiling eggs

[Robin Garr]

http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the- ... -eggs.html

(I love Kenji's "Food Lab" articles. He's Alton Brown without the goofy. )

Nice one! Thx, Robin

[Robin Garr]

Take note, though, that when we tried this for lunch today. It didn't work. The eggs still tore up when we peeled them, and 11 minutes was not long enough to hard-boil. Fail!

Not sure what you may have done there, Robin, but I find that 11 minutes (from my experience, actually 9 minutes) is indeed long enough to hard boil an egg. But, I don't start counting until the water comes back up to a boil (actually, a vigorous simmer), and from that point to 9 minutes I have a perfectly hard boiled egg! Also, I have discovered that I have the best luck with peeling an egg when I drain the water off and cool the eggs down with cold tap water, but just until they are cool enough to handle. I have problems with sticking shells once the eggs are totally cold or have sat a room temperature for an extended period. But, that may just be hit and miss. I'm beginning to believe that the shell issue is more a matter of the age of the egg more so than anything else. Who knows?!

[Robin Garr]

Jo Ann, I think the age of the egg may be a biggie, and there we were caught by our penchant for fresh local eggs. These were only a week or so from the hen, and that apparently matters.

Jo Ann, I think the age of the egg may be a biggie, and there we were caught by our penchant for fresh local eggs. These were only a week or so from the hen, and that apparently matters.

'Fer sure. Those farm fresh eggs are a PITA to peel. I know there are tricks to deal with this, or so I'm told, but I always "age" a few eggs and set them aside for easier peeling HB egg, as the link mentions. Absent that, NJ gets the job.

Otherwise, it's 10 minutes for me after it returns to a decent boil.

At some point I realized that I was going to be eating HB eggs regularly (due to Weight Watchers) and I looked around for a good reproducible method. I am really happy with what I found and I want to share it. I usually do 3 eggs at a time. One of my favorite breakfasts -- toast a piece of bread, spread with a thin layer of mayo and a stripe of Dijon mustard, sprinkle a few capers. Peel and slice HB egg (I have a great egg slicer) and lay the slices over the toast. Flavor says deviled egg but it's breakfast, an open-faced sandwich. Also works really well with pita bread.

OK. Boil a pot of water. Poke holes in LARGE ends of 3 eggs. Slip the eggs into the boiling water, turn off the heat, put on a lid, maybe a potholder to insulate the lid. And set a timer for 20 minutes. At the end of 20 minutes move the eggs to a cold water bath to stop cooking. Works every time.

[Jenise]

I have never poked a hole in an egg, Frank. You use a needle? Does that help with peelability?

I have never poked a hole in an egg, Frank. You use a needle? Does that help with peelability?

Doesn't help with peelability, but helps prevent cracking, There is an air cell at the broad end and pricking this allows the air out as it expands
during cooking.

for peelability I agree with the points already mentioned ie older eggs are generally easier to peel because the shell membrane dehydrates as they age and
thus shrinks away from the shell a little. I think also that cooling rapidly in cold water and peeling as soon as you can handle them makes it easier as well. I crack the
shell all over, roll it around a little and then peel.

There are some nice links there for deviled egg recipes. Buffalo Blue Cheese! Who knew?

[Jenise]

I think also that cooling rapidly in cold water and peeling as soon as you can handle them makes it easier as well. I crack the
shell all over, roll it around a little and then peel.

Certainly the older egg peels best, but I too believe that rapid cooling helps with peeling. I was surprised that Kenji didn't address that in his article (which I really enjoyed, thanks Robin). I'm also reminded that somewhere on this planet, and maybe the conversation took place in this forum (I seem to remember Bob Ross being involved and Julia Child getting mentioned), I read of a method attributed to the lady wherein one boils, rapidly cools, then returns the egg to the boiling water for like one extra minute--or something similar--which was guaranteed to make a perfectly peelable egg every time. Never tried it myself--I only cook and peel an egg here and there, I've never in my life made a tray of deviled eggs and I never will. So the need to large quantities of perfectly peeled eggs just isn't in my universe.

???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ7STYWbTlA

Old eggs, or... ?

I have never poked a hole in an egg, Frank. You use a needle? Does that help with peelability?

I use a sharp fork tine, something needle-y to poke the hole. The shell is surprisingly tough, often I rotate the egg a little with the fork tine in it to enlarge the hole. And if you get a little cracking on that end, no harm done, you're just letting the air escape. Some eggs are confusingly symmetrical -- if you put holes in both ends usually just the air comes out anyway. If you just poke a hole in the wrong end -- you get a "bubble" of cooked egg white that leaked out. But yes -- Barb is right, cracking is the issue, cracking and leaking. Once I started using this method I quit bothering with adding vinegar or salt to the cooking water. It's beside the point. And you have to wash the pan if it smells of vinegar.

[Jenise]

Hmmm, I add neither vinegar nor salt, and I never experience cracking--or at least, I can't remember the last time it did though I know it's happened in the distant past so it's not been much of a worry to me. Not sure what I'm doing right....

I spoke with a friend of mine who works for the National Food Administration, and now I quote: "Most crucial to whether an egg is easy or difficult to peel is its age. The egg white of a fresh egg is usually more firmly fixed to the shell membrane, partly because a newly laid egg has a lower acidity. It normally has a pH of 7.6, but for it to be easy to remove, the pH must be raised to 8.7. It usually takes two days before the egg shell has an appropriate pH. After a few days the egg white shrinks together additionally a bit, and that means that the air layer between the shell and shell membrane becomes larger. The best eggs, from the shell point of view, are those that are between seven and ten days old."

Greetings from Sweden / Fredrik L