It is amazing to me how much trouble people have boiling an egg. It is equally amazing to me how many different ways there are to boil an egg. Do you leave the water boiling the whole time? Bring it to a boil and turn it off? Soft Boil? Hard Boil? I recently heard you can even "boil" your egg by baking it in the oven. I guess I have really never paid so much attention to this issue since I personally feel it is pretty simple. I really have very little problems boiling an egg. I never soft boil - what is the point? If I want a soft boiled egg why not just poach an egg? Also along those lines I am the only person in my family who likes a runny yolk, so for my crew here it is hard boiled all the way. I will talk you through my steps of how to boil an egg.
Put the desired amount of eggs into a large pan. Cover generously with water. Sprinkle about 1T. Salt in the water. The salt will help if the egg happens to crack while cooking. It will keep the whites tight to the egg and not stringing all over the pot.
Turn the stove on high and bring to a boil. Once the pot comes to a boil set your timer for 10 minutes. Leave the heat on high and let those eggs vigorously boil for 10 minutes. Once the timer goes off immediately remove from heat and pour off the hot water.
Fill the pot with cold water.
This shocks the eggs and stops the cooking. I rinse and re-fill the pot 3-4 times with cold water. Next I peel the eggs. When I was growing up my mom would take a pencil and write a "B" on the shell of all the boiled eggs. They would go in the fridge and wait to be peeled until we wanted to eat them. I have found by doing this I most certainly will loose half of my whites in the peeling process. When you peel your warm eggs I have found that it is more likely to have a clean removal of the shell from the egg with little to no loss of whites in the peeling process.
First crack the egg completely all over the surface of the egg. I just do this on my sink. Then with a light stream of warm water I peel the egg, allowing the water to "push" between the egg and the shell as I pull the shell off. Make sure you have pulled the inside membrane off with the shell, it will help with the peeling process. Give the eggs a final rinse and store in an air tight container.
These peeled eggs are ready to eat. My family will snack on them, have them for breakfast, or make an egg salad sandwich or deviled egg. If they are just eating the egg they sprinkle on a little salt. My husband likes them best warm right after I have peeled them. If I am making an egg salad or deviled egg I add a little pickle relish, garlic, salt, pepper, mustard, mayo or miracle whip (or both) and for deviled eggs some paprika on top. You will notice from the cut egg that this cooking process will leave the egg beautifully yellow and white with
no ugly grey ring around the yolk.
It works every time! How do you enjoy your eggs?
Hey, it's funny how people have all different methods for boiling eggs and most of them come out the same. But I've heard that unpeeled boiled eggs can stay good a week but if peeled, you have to eat them right away. Just a little food safety tip.
ReplyDeleteThamks for the tip - we go through eggs pretty quick in our house and have never had any health issues with this method. I encourage people to do what works best for them!
DeleteAs an additional note (since you peaked my interest) The FDA states that Hard Boiled eggs can be stored safely in or out of the shell for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Other internet sources state that the peeled eggs can be stored up to one week in an airtight container or in a bowl of cold water if you change the water daily. You can view the FDA source here:
Deletehttp://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/UCM278445.pdf?utm_campaign=Google2&utm_source=fdaSearch&utm_medium=website&utm_term=hard boiled eggs&utm_content=3