How to boil an egg (for nymo)

Start with eggs that are at least 3 days old.  If you use very fresh eggs the shell will cling to the white and they will be hard to peel.

Put the cold eggs into a pot of cold water.  You may add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar to each quart of water.  The water should completely cover the eggs to the depth of 1 inch.  Put a lid on the pot

Slowly bring up the heat until it reaches the boiling point

Turn down the heat and simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let the covered pot sit until cool

This will produce perfect hard boiled eggs that will be easy to peel.

Does anyone have any other egg boiling tips?  Please tell us your secrets!

I do my eggs a little different. I put them in a stovepot of water, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat completely. The eggs sit for about 12 minutes and then I submerge them in a bowl of ice-cold water to cool them rapidly. This will prevent the nasty green layer around the yolk.

What I'd really like to master is the soft boiled egg where the yolk is not a runny liquid (the way they are intended), but just slightly firmer and almost spreadable. I think there is a fancy cokking term for this stage but I can't recall it at the moment.

-jf-

Jenny - I think its a "3 minute egg"  I remember when I went to Europe we had these eggs in London every morning served in those egg holders and you tapped the shell and peeled the top and then ate it with a spoon and the yolk was soft.  yummy!!!

boil them longer if you don't want the yolk so runny 

i love you clairelaine! 

Seriously, I battle every week with boiling eggs!  Putting them in the water, using a steaming basket, I'm up for any method!  I've exploded eggs in the microwave, I've burned them on the stove top, I've made slurpy eggs in the steamer.  You name it, I've messed up the eggs!

I like the idea of the steamer approach.  The yolk ends up really bright yellow and just hard enough that it's not runny at all.  No greenish gray outer edge color.  It seems tho in the steamer some of the eggs don't get fully cooked and will be soft on one side.

Boiling eggs I'm a pro of forgetting about them on the stove and the water boils away... 45minutes later I think I'm hearing the cats digging in the garbage, but really it's eggs popping and burning to the bottom of the pan.

I'll take any suggestions you can throw out.  MC even pointed out that there is a small appliance made I think by Sunbeam that will hard boil up to 8 eggs at a time, perfect every time.  I looked for it today at Bed, Bath & Beyond but they didn't carry it. 

That reminds me, I'm down to my last HB egg and I do need to make more!  I always use my oldest eggs cuz I did catch the conversation about older eggs are easier to peel.   During the week, HB eggs are part of my breakfast probably at least 4 days a week!  Such a quick and easy grab and go breakfast item... if you can cook them right!

haahaa!  I had my husband make the hard boiled eggs this week.  He boiled them and I did point him to the directions clairelaine recommended.  Of 7 eggs, only 1 cracked, but so far all of them have the really green yolks.  I think I need to buy an egg cooker steamer thingy.  LOL  Anyone able to recommend a good one?  And where do you buy one?   Walmart you can only order online.  Bed Bath & Beyond and Linen and Things doesn't carry them at all... I don't want to spend an arm and a leg, but I'd be willing to pay $20-30.

I think the plunge in cold water after cooking method might solve the green layer problem, though mine usually don't have it.

I've only noticed a green layer when the eggs cook too long, maybe more than 15 minutes.

So maybe if they are left in the hot/warm water too long this will happen?  I'll experiment when I boil some eggs today.  I'll leave half in the water to cool and take half out and plunge them in cold water, and see what happens.  I'm making deviled eggs.  I just discovered Hellman's Dijonaisse - 5 calories per teaspoon.

If you don't want the yolk to be runny start with a pot of boiling water, put the egg in and let the water boil with the egg in for between 8 and 10 mins and the yolk will come out perfect, not hard and not runny.  If you want it runny let it boil for between 6 and 8 mins.  Obviously adjust time by about -/+2mins depending on how big the egg is.  You might have to do a trial and error, but the basics are sound. Make sure to cool egg down with cold water for about 5 mins as soon as it finishes boiling.

Hope this helps

I find Jennys_fan method the best.  One other trick I've learned is that after you drain off the hot water, shake the eggs vigorously in the pot to crack them, then run very cold water over them.  Then peel them within 5 minutes, and the shells come off nice and easy.  The yolk is nice, yellow and almost creamy! 

Coddled eggs?  Oh, and poached eggs are great, too.  Boil water, and then lower to simmer, crack in an egg and 3 or 3.5 minutes later lift out with a slotted spoon; perfect!  A little salt and paprika......wonderful for breakfast.

Now I'm confused.  I boiled a half a dozen eggs this morning.  Half of them I let cool in the pan and half I plunged into cold water to stop the cooking after 10 minutes.  All of them were perfectly boiled with no gray ring.  However, one from each batch wouldn't peel.  4 eggs came out perfect and the shells just slid off.  The other two the shells adhered and they were a mess.  I don't understand how eggs from the same carton could do this.  And the fact that both the slow cooled and the quick cooled eggs had one that was difficult is really baffling.

So - I had egg salad for lunch and the rest are now deviled eggs.

Beats me, although my mom used to cook them for a REALLY long time, like half an hour, and they had the grey layer pretty much every time.  Maybe that was just a coincidence, maybe it's the kind of eggs we had?  Maybe it just depends on the egg.

maybe you just can't mess up an egg, claire ;D

Could you poach them, that way you could SEE if it is runny or solid?  I have a 6 piece poacher, it steams them while cooking in little cups.  I like my yolks on the runny side, so this way works for me becasue I can see how they are cooking, takes much less time than boiling them.

I made more eggs this weekend and they all came out with the green/grey yolks.   Not as bad as last week's eggs, but still kinda green and I thought for sure they'd be under cooked this time.  I'm shopping for an egg cooker!  LOL

If you are making hard boiled eggs "for show".  Lay the egg carton on its side for 24 hours before boiling.  The yolks will be perfectly centered !

Here's some more information from The Good Egg and About.com

I've also learned that it takes longer to cook eggs at higher altitudes, so if you're in the mountains, leave the eggs in the hot water for 15 minutes.

i boiled eggs for the first time in my life today! i was on the phone with my mum so she could guide me through step-by-step. i did exactly what she told me to do and the eggs turned out perfect, with no nasty green/grey layer around the yolk at all.

i submerged the eggs completely in a pot, then brought up the heat to boiling point. i let it boil for 6-8 minutes, and then immediately switched off the heat, and immediately filling pot with cold water. i gradually "integrated" (for lack of a better word) cold water into the boiling water in the pot (fill with cold water, dump half of the water in the pot out, fill with cold water, dump half the water in the pot, repeat) and then let the eggs sit in the cold water for a couple of minutes. they peeled very easily and the green/grey layer was nowhere to be seen!

i thought they were difficult to peal if they were too fresh as in the original post but then if they were from the same batch thats really strange! Unless a couple of the eggs got broken in the store and they replaced them with ones from a fresher delivery maybe?

for perfect soft boiled eggs, i just learnt this from a friend when she made me brekkie the other week but i havent tried it myself yet as i usually eat mine hard boiled in salads. cover the eggs with water and bring to the boil. boil for one minute then turn off the heat amd leave in the hot water for 5 minutes. this way you should get perfect '3 minute' eggs with a runny yolk but without the risk of yukky runny white. perfect with some 'soldiers'!