I'll Show You Egg-xactly How...

Have you ever eaten a hard boiled that was green? Or eaten one that was runny?  Well, first of all.  What is a perfectly cooked hard boiled egg?  When the egg is opened the yolk should still be a dark orange, NOT YELLOW.  If the yolk is completely yellow and firm...IT'S OVER COOKED.  But that's what we see on salads and such, slices of hard eggs with the yolk that feels like a sponge. 

I've figured out an idiot proof way of boiling an egg PERFECTLY and no there isn't going to be anything that will change this.  It doesn't matter how big, how small, how many, what color, or even what altitude.  Actually there is really only one that will affect this method different...the temperature of the egg.  But I don't think anybody is going to leave their eggs sitting out at room temperature before cooking.  This method is for taking eggs straight out of the refrigerator and into the pot.  This is IDIOT PROOF!

First place your eggs in a pot.  Doesn't matter what pot just as long as the side are double the height of the eggs when laid down.  Then you want pour in COLD water.  The reason for this is so that as the temperature of the water rises so does the temperature inside the egg giving us even cooking.  If you take the egg and put it into boiling water, the outer part of the egg will cook faster than the inside of the egg because the inside is much colder.  Doing this will over cook the egg white and under cook the yolk making it quite bitter.  You also want to add a splash of vinegar in the water too.  This will make it easier to peel the eggs when they're done.  The fresher the egg the harder it is to peel the shell off.  How do you know how fresh the egg is?  I don't know so just put the vinegar in. 

After you've placed the eggs in cold water in the pot onto the flame, jack the heat all the way up.  Now all you do now is watch and wait and make sure you have a timer on hand (cell phone, watch, it doesn't matter).  Depending on how much water and how many eggs you've put into the pot the water should start to boil in about 5 minutes for about 3-5 eggs.  If you're not sure when the water is boiling...just watch the eggs.  When the eggs start to lift off the bottom because of the bubbles that's pretty much boiling point.  So when you see the water start to boil put your time to 8 minutes and just leave it alone.  Within this 8 minute period of egg perfecting you want to get a bowl that will host about double the amount of eggs that you have.  Fill the bowl about half way with ice and then fill the bowl up with water just to about when the ice starts to float (you've just created an ice bath).  As soon as your 8 minute timer has gone off, shut off the fire and scoop out the eggs and immediately put them into the ice bath (this is when you see why I say get a bowl that will host double the amount of eggs).  Stir the eggs around a little bit and then let them sit in the ice bath for 8-10 min then take them out.  If you like to eat hard boiled eggs warm (my favorite), take them out in 4 minutes.  Peel and enjoy with a little bit of kosher salt.

If you're not going to eat all the eggs soon and you want to store them.  You can do so by keeping the shell on.  With the shell on the egg can last up to 9 days.  This is a great on-the-go snack...especially in the morning!

Oh yeah, from left to right in the picture:
Under cooked egg
Perfectly cooked egg
Over cooked egg

bien manger
-cwis