Hard Boiled

[plonq]

I think I mentioned it here at the time, but on our last day at the bed & breakfast in Victoria, they made us some breakfasts for the road when they learned that we would be leaving before first seating the next day.

As you can see, the breakfast was a modest assortment containing a scone, egg, yoghurt and banana. What this picture does not show was that the egg was cooked to near perfection. It was cooked through, but soft to the point of being not-quite-runny in the very centre. As I was eating it, it occurred to me that I have been overcooking my boiled eggs every time I make them.


I did a little bit of on-line research, and finally found a site that delved into the science of boiled eggs. He went into all of the factors that can affect cooking times, and warned that the times he presented must be taken as good approximations at best. I boiled up some eggs a couple of weeks ago following his instructions, and even though I still have not worked out the science of making them easy to peel, the yolks came out much better than usual.

I did four more of them today, albeit cutting a minutes off the cooking time I used a couple of weeks ago, and I think I have hit pretty close to the sweet spot for hard boiled eggs.

I put four eggs into a pot and covered them with enough water to leave them a couple of centimetres submerged. As soon as the water came to a full boil, I shut off the heat and let them coast for seven minutes. I forgot to cover the pot this time, but in retrospect I don't think it made a lot of difference over the last time I cooked them. At the end of seven minutes, I drained the water and dumped the eggs into an ice bath to halt any further cooking.

The whites were fully cooked, and the yolks were just set all the way through. I might be inclined to leave them for another minute or two if I had planned to turn them into devilled eggs or the like, but for peel & eat eggs, these were just the way I like 'em.

Comments

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

I did a little bit of on-line research

You're a hard-boiled detective.

[aurifer.livejournal.com]

A friend invited me to an impromptu picnic (or that might have been my idea, and he just invited me out), and I thought my eggs were just barely done, because the way my mom does them they get that greenish cast on the outside of the yolks. My friend was amazed by them, though, and said they were cooked nearly perfectly.

I think older eggs don't peel as good, and they peel best when they're still a bit warm in the middle. Do some cold rinses, until they're cool enough to hold, then take it from there. If those membranes are sticking to the egg and not the shell, apparently a spoon works pretty well if you can wield it right.