Cooking hard boiled eggs

[carnivalday]

I, too, have my own chickens and really enjoy hard boiled eggs. I dont like playing with boiling water, so I just put the eggs in cold water on the stove (try and get them 2 weeks old or older if I can), turn the stove on, set timer for 15 minutes. Turn them off, let them sit for 5-10 minutes, pour off the hot water and run cold water over them until they stay cool. They peel pretty good, for the most part. Every now and again I will get one stubborn to peel...I toss it in the garbage, I dont have patience to pick and pick at an egg. Not with dozens on my counter to use.

 

[HFWR]

While I like Alton Brown, I find he sometimes goes for sizzle over substance. From the serious eats guy I linked earlier (who is quite scientific):



What Kenji says, and his experience, makes sense to me. It might work for some people, in some ovens, under some circumstances.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs.html

-ERD50

I turn the convection setting to 350, which auto-adjusts to 325. I place half a dozen eggs in a muffin pan, set the timer for 30 min., then dunk them in the aforementioned ice water bath. This may or may not mimic Alton exactly, though it’s what I recall from one show, some years back. Works great EVERY time. YMMV...

 

[nvestysly]

I steam them for 12 minutes.

+1

I see several "votes" for steaming and I agree wholeheartedly! I don't have an instant pot or any similar high-tech steamer I just use the old-fashioned method of getting the water up to temperature (so it's making plenty of steam) before I place the eggs in the basket for 10-12 minutes. I like my "hard-boiled" eggs on the not too done side so 10 minutes works well for me. If I let them go 12 minutes they're fine but have a bit of a gray ring around the yoke. After the prescribed 10 - 12 minutes I take them out of the steamer basket and allow them to air cool to room temperature.

I've done lots of testing on a variety of cold water, hot water, ice bath, cool quickly methods described here. I've also tried the oven method with a variety of time/temperature/cooling techniques. I have to admit that I cannot control the age of the egg because I buy them in a grocery store and who knows how old they are when I get them home. So other than the "age" of the egg that I can't control... steaming is the clear winner for us.

I learned the steam method from Cook's Country on PBS. They indicated that steaming the egg cooks the membrane inside the shell more quickly than immersing the egg in water (even boiling water). According to CC when the membrane is cooked quickly it is less tough. All I know is steaming works well for us. We make our "hard boiled" eggs infrequently and keep them in the refrigerator for days and even weeks. The steamed eggs peel very well regardless of how long ago the eggs were purchased and how long it's been since they were steamed. The boiled eggs are hit or miss regarding ease of peeling.

 

[gerntz]

I'm not much of a cook, but why would you cook a hard boiled egg?

 

[karen1972]

I do mine in the instapot. I found this link both amusing and informative... because the answer varies based on size of egg and what YOU consider the perfect boiled egg.
This blog was nice enough to take the time and cook them at various times to show you what each minute looks like so you could pick the right time for your liking.

https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/pressure-cooker-soft-hard-boiled-eggs/

 

[Big_Hitter]

I have one of these. Just about the best thing I've bought from amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00945XLF8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[ERD50]

I turn the convection setting to 350, which auto-adjusts to 325. I place half a dozen eggs in a muffin pan, set the timer for 30 min., then dunk them in the aforementioned ice water bath. This may or may not mimic Alton exactly, though it’s what I recall from one show, some years back. Works great EVERY time. YMMV...

But as the serious eats guy explained, it's the YMMV part - ovens can vary a lot, so great if it works for you, but others may not be able to duplicate those results.

+1

I see several "votes" for steaming and I agree wholeheartedly! I don't have an instant pot or any similar high-tech steamer I just use the old-fashioned method of getting the water up to temperature (so it's making plenty of steam) before I place the eggs in the basket for 10-12 minutes. I like my "hard-boiled" eggs on the not too done side so 10 minutes works well for me. If I let them go 12 minutes they're fine but have a bit of a gray ring around the yoke. After the prescribed 10 - 12 minutes I take them out of the steamer basket and allow them to air cool to room temperature.

I've done lots of testing on a variety of cold water, hot water, ice bath, cool quickly methods described here. I've also tried the oven method with a variety of time/temperature/cooling techniques. I have to admit that I cannot control the age of the egg because I buy them in a grocery store and who knows how old they are when I get them home. So other than the "age" of the egg that I can't control... steaming is the clear winner for us.

I learned the steam method from Cook's Country on PBS. They indicated that steaming the egg cooks the membrane inside the shell more quickly than immersing the egg in water (even boiling water). According to CC when the membrane is cooked quickly it is less tough. All I know is steaming works well for us. We make our "hard boiled" eggs infrequently and keep them in the refrigerator for days and even weeks. The steamed eggs peel very well regardless of how long ago the eggs were purchased and how long it's been since they were steamed. The boiled eggs are hit or miss regarding ease of peeling.

Exactly what the serious eats guy is saying, and he does say steaming works just as well as boiling, and it does seem to make more sense to steam, only a little water to heat.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs.html

I'm not much of a cook, but why would you cook a hard boiled egg?

These are the same people who buy "Hot Water Heaters"!

-ERD50

 

[Rustic23]

Instant Pot here. Only way to do boiled eggs!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I just steamed some caulifower in the Instant Pot and made hard boiled eggs in the egg steamer. I put the Kill a Watt on both. My Instant Pot on steam setting started out at 991 watts. The egg steamer took around 15 minutes at 352 watts with about 1 minute of prep time (to pierce seven eggs).

 

[Sunset]

Just don't ever walk away and forget a pot of eggs on the stove. I did that once when I was in college. Took a loooong time to get the appalling stench out of the house, and I had to hear about it from my Dad every hour on the hour.

Oh yes....
My Mom did this with an aluminum pot on an electric stove, she noticed the smell of burnt eggs and MELTED aluminum too late.

 

[fosterscik]

I just steamed some caulifower in the Instant Pot and made hard boiled eggs in the egg steamer. I put the Kill a Watt on both. My Instant Pot on steam setting started out at 991 watts. The egg steamer took around 15 minutes at 352 watts with about 1 minute of prep time (to pierce seven eggs).

Most instant pot egg steamers use a 5/5/5 method. So it’s only heating for 5 min once at pressure, plus the time to reach that pressure. Hard to make direct comparison.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Most instant pot egg steamers use a 5/5/5 method. So it’s only heating for 5 min once at pressure, plus the time to reach that pressure. Hard to make direct comparison.

I didn't use the pressure setting - just the steam setting.

 

[AutumnElf]

I have something that works for us.

Boil the eggs. When I want soft, and just barely cooked it's 8 mins. Fully cooked is ten mins (my family doesn't like runny eggs).

If you cook them too long they get that green tinge around the edge of the yolk. Unappealing and not good for us, I think.

To get the shell off very easily, pour out all the boiling water. Pour in cold water to cover. Let sit a minute or two. (if you forget them and let them sit there for a real long time the shell will stick but you're safe with up to give mins!) Then dump that water out and pour in more cold water to cover for a moment. Then take out your eggs... The shells will peel off extremely easily! No vinegar or anything like that.

 

[HFWR]

But as the serious eats guy explained, it's the YMMV part - ovens can vary a lot, so great if it works for you, but others may not be able to duplicate those results.
-ERD50

Good grief... How does anyone manage to bake a cake or pie? Tweak the time or temp a bit if necessary. It’s hard cooked eggs, not rocket surgery...

 

[ERD50]

Good grief... How does anyone manage to bake a cake or pie? Tweak the time or temp a bit if necessary. It’s hard cooked eggs, not rocket surgery...

That's why cook books generally say "pre-heat the oven to...". That takes the ramp variation out of it.

Obviously, just like the putting eggs in cold water method, once you have a system that works, it's fine for you. But it may not translate to someone else, w/o adjustments. Not the end of the world or anything, but that was from the "Serious Eats" guy!

Plus, the hot water/steam method is supposed to make them easier to shell. I don't do hard boiled eggs often, and DW usually has them cooked before I jump in, so I haven't tested myself. Some day.

-ERD50

 

[Big_Hitter]

eating 4 I just made right now - YUM

 

[ERD50]

Another egg question, one I'd love to do scientifically sometime (this applies to anything where they suggest cooling with an ice bath).

Is an ice bath important? I'm pretty good with basic, practical thermal dynamics, it is analogous to electrical Volts, Amps and Resistance, so easy for me to translate. Assuming you have reasonably cool tap water (I know some places in the south do not at some times), it seems to me that a flow of cool tap water might be better than an ice bath.

I've been through these discussions with home brewers trying to get their boiling wort (raw beer) chilled to yeast-friendly temperatures. There's a lot of myths and misunderstanding out there.

Water movement can have a very big effect on removing heat. Now, since ice floats, you will have some convection currents - the hot water rises, gets chilled by the ice and sinks. But that is much milder than a running tap.

Even if you use an ice bath, I bet the best fast chill would be to use running tap water to take the initial heat down, and then put them in the ice bath. Brewers also do this if they need ice for the final step of getting the wort below their tap water temperature. The physics to this is, when that egg is really hot, say ~ 180F, there's little difference between that and tap water, and that and ice water. Using ice for the initial chill is basically just melting the ice, and warming the ice bath. Sometimes, the ice isn't melting fast enough to keep the water temperature from rising. When they talk about using an ice bath to calibrate a thermometer, they usually recommend ice chips (lots of surface area to melt), and a high ratio of ice to water. Or, it needs to sit long enough to stabilize, but we want to chill fast, right?

180 - 70 tap water = 110 F delta (but more water movement)
180 - 33 ice bath = 147 F delta (but might not stay at 33 with hot eggs in there?)

As the egg cools the advantage is greater for the ice bath, and the ice bath will help at some point. But maybe it doesn't matter much, maybe the initial cooling is all that is needed to help peeling?

A simple egg.

-ERD50

 

[RonBoyd]

Is an ice bath important?

I don't know. I, after comparing, have decided that cooling the eggs makes no difference to the end result. (It does mean you can put them in the refrigerator sooner, however.) I simply let them come to room temperature on their own.

The result is, I have one less thing to clean up after. Which is the point of my using the above mentioned Egg Cooker in the first place. I open the cooker, put a little water in, add the eggs, and flip the switch. 10 to 15 minutes later, I open the cooker, remove the eggs, put cooker away. Even using the Instant Pot gave me more to do than I was willing to tolerate.

Other things I found was that cold eggs from the refrigerator cooked (ended up) the same as eggs at room temperature. The same thing holds true for the age of the eggs... although I never tried it with eggs older than three weeks (from purchase).

 

[braumeister]

Using ice for the initial chill is basically just melting the ice

… which takes a lot of energy for the phase change.

 

[Sue J]

DH's method is eggs in a pot of cold water, heat to rolling boil, turn off heat and cover for 18 minutes. I taught him to put the finished eggs in an ice and water bath until cool.

I have an Instant Pot and have made excellent hard boiled eggs in it with the 5/5/5 method mentioned earlier. Turned out very nicely and easy to peel.

I bought one of those egg cookers for poaching eggs and it has a rack for steaming up to 7 eggs for soft, medium or hard boiled. Hard boiled eggs come out very nicely using this thing and it's much smaller on the counter than the Instant Pot. I checked how long it took and it was 18 minutes, slightly faster than stove top method because you don't wait for the water in the pot to boil. The only drawback to the egg cooker is the little measuring cup that you use is very hard to read. Someone should fix that!

All methods require an ice bath - eggs and 6 to 8 ice cubes in a bowl. Add water to cover the eggs.

 

[SumDay]

What Galaxy Boy said. That Instant Pot does everything but clean up my messes in the kitchen.

 

[aja8888]

Yikes! 71 posts on cooking eggs to hard boiled! It's a good thing this wasn't about cooking eggs any style or making omelettes! It would be as long as the Viagra thread.

I still vote for the Costco bagged and previously cooked eggs.

 

[braumeister]

I shudder to think how long a thread on soft boiled eggs would run.

 

[ERD50]

Yikes! 71 posts on cooking eggs to hard boiled! It's a good thing this wasn't about cooking eggs any style or making omelettes! ...

I get the impression that a very specific thread might draw more posts, because it almost begs to go into detail on that specific thing. And one detail spawns another, and debates on each, and so on.

I wonder if there is a name for that effect (if it exists)?

It reminds me of a comment someone made about their career in Academia: "The reason debates in Academia get so heated, is because there is so little at stake!".

-ERD50

 

[TXKJH]

For the perfect soft or hard-boiled egg, the Instant Pot makes perfect hard boiled in 5 minutes (after it comes to pressure).