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
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
those images are utter nonsense though
4 minutes, i.e. soft boiled egg, is runny.
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.
Having worked in a restaurant kitchen boiling many eggs, there must be more to this.
This is the method we used, and every egg in the same boil would be different, so clearly this method has little to do with it.
Age is the big factor. It does two things:
- Eggs gradually lose water, which introduces more air into the air cell and between the membrane and the shell, making it all a bit looser as you peel.
- The pH increases, reducing the attraction/attachment of the boiled egg white to the membrane, which is why fresh egg shells are more likely to tear strips of white off as you peel.
Eggs in the US can be up to 60 days old at the time of packaging, then are considered good for another 45 days. Large flats of eggs can contain eggs from multiple batches of varying age, so some eggs might be two weeks old and others two or more months.
Question for step 3: is that 8:30-9:00 AM or PM?
Yes
It’s 8:30-9, not 20:30-21.
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.
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.
