The Perfect Boiled Egg

[Muddypause]

How do you like your eggs?

Medium hard, for me. That means putting a large egg into a pan of cold water, bringing it to the boil, and simmering for 4 minutes 45 seconds, or thereabouts.

A chef on the radio this morning said put the egg in boiling water for 4 minutes 10 seconds for medium hard. I tried this this morning, and it was definitely soft; needed longer. He also said don't keep eggs in the fridge, or they will crack when you put them in the boiling water (I do, it did). They don't if you put them in cold water and bring it to the boil.

Another way is to bring the pan to the boil, turn off the heat, and leave for ten minutes. This works OK, but life seems too short to wait the extra five and a quarter minutes.

[Shirley]

I like runny yolk... fresh golden yolked eggs from my own chooks... or ducks... or geese when it is that time of year.

We don't keep our eggs in the fridge, and we put the egg into the boiling water and cook for about 3.5 minutes for the size that we get from our hens. Longer for hardboiled, which I like in a salad/egg mayo that sort of thing.

We eat scrambled egg more than anything - about a minute and a half in the microwave and it's done to a turn....

And all this talk of eggs has me singing again....

"how do you like your eggs in the morning... I like mine with a smile"

[Andy Hamilton]

actually it is one of the top searches to get to the main bit of this site - how do I boil an egg I use the chefs method on that page and leave it in hot water for 6-7 mins. Actually normally 6 mins as I like it slightly runny.

I don't keep eggs in the fridge and with all the baking that I do they don't last long in our house anyway.

[Stonehead]

I like mine almost all hard, the OH prefers hers soft and the Big Lad plumps for medium. The Wee 'Un is allergic to them.

Our eggs are not kept in the refigerator. I bring the water to the boil, lower the eggs in on a spoon, keep on the heat until I've counted 60 and then remove from the heat. The OH's egg/s come out at six minutes, the Big Lad at seven and a half, and mine at 10.

[The Chili Monster]

I tried the Chef's Method as given on the SSish main site, and the egg came out soft for my liking.
Having written that, I'm very partial to the odd poached egg; defo my fave way of cooking eggs.
I hate cooking eggs for other people. Like tea, it's a struugle to get it quite right.

[Millymollymandy]

This is very interesting! I have never heard of cooking them after turning off the heat, or putting in cold water to start with.

I keep my eggs in the fridge but try to remember to get them out of the fridge several hours before boiling. If not, I put the egg in a ladle, lower it into the water, bring it out, then gently back in again. They usually don't crack that way.

Generally I boil for 5 mins (but there is always a bit of runny white which I loath) - but any more and the yolk is hard.

Hard boiled I boil for 10 mins then 2 more mins after turning off the heat - then straight into cold water.

[Wombat]

I find if you do keep your eggs in the fridge and start with cold water they don't crack (mostly...)

Nev

[Muddypause]

My mum always used to put salt in the water to stop the eggs cracking. Not really sure how this worked.

[Clarabel]

Apparently vinegar works well at stopping cracking too

Clarabel

[Andy Hamilton]

The chefs method works best if you put a lid on the pan to keep the heat in. I must add that to the article.

[Masco&Bongo]

Eggs should always be used at room temperature (i read somewhere)

I keep mine in the fridge, otherwise the puppy eats them!

Boiled eggs have to be runny in the middle, otherwise how would you dip your toast soliders in?

[Stonehead]

The chefs method works best if you put a lid on the pan to keep the heat in. I must add that to the article.

You mean people boil eggs without the lid on? That wastes quite a lot of energy.

It's funny how you just get on with doing stuff, taking it for granted that other people do it in a fairly similar way and then learn that they don't.

I'm like that with boiled eggs. Nothing to do with chefs' methods - it's just more efficient (and cheaper) to bring the water to the boil with the lid on (you're not heating the egg as well), then plunge the egg (at room temperature) into the boiling water, bring it back up to temperature, and then turn the heat off once the water is hot enough.

Mind you, that's how I cook a lot of things if I'm using an on/off cooker (electricity, gas etc) instead of an always-on cooker (wood, coal, etc).

Interesting.

Oh, and I should also add that during the day, when the sun is shining, I always use hot water from the tap to fill the kettle for boiling, to boil eggs, etc. Why? Because we have solar HW and so long as the sun is on those panels, I'll use DHW to shorten the boiling time.

[Shirley]

I cover other pots when I'm cooking... but not boiled eggs or pasta... but next time I boil eggs I'll use the covered pot method.

I'll try it with pasta too :)

[Muddypause]

- it's just more efficient (and cheaper) to bring the water to the boil with the lid on (you're not heating the egg as well), then plunge the egg (at room temperature) into the boiling water, bring it back up to temperature

You just know I love this sort of thing, don't you! All things being equal, it takes the same amount of energy to heat the egg up to 100C, regardless of when you put it in the water. But all things are not equal, and you must also consider that heat losses are greater the hotter things are. So, heating the egg up by putting it into already boiling water may, infact, incur greater lost energy than if you heat the water and egg up together from room temperature. This will happen during the 'return to boiling' phase until the egg is at the same temperature as the water.

You could do the experiment - fill a pan with water. Put it on a gas burner, and time how long it takes to boil (A). Now put an egg in, and time how long it takes to return to the boil (B). Also note how long the gas is on for from boiling, until the egg is cooked (C).

Now do the same, using exactly the same amount of water in tha same pan, but with the egg already in it. Put it over the same gas burner. Compare the time it takes to get to the boil with A+B. Again note how long the gas is on for from boiling until the egg is cooked and compare this with C.

Now write this all up, and send Big Lad off to school with it instead of his next homework assignment.

[Stonehead]

[You just know I love this sort of thing, don't you! All things being equal, it takes the same amount of energy to heat the egg up to 100C, regardless of when you put it in the water. But all things are not equal, and you must also consider that heat losses are greater the hotter things are. So, heating the egg up by putting it into already boiling water may, infact, incur greater lost energy than if you heat the water and egg up together from room temperature. This will happen during the 'return to boiling' phase until the egg is at the same temperature as the water.

You could do the experiment - fill a pan with water. Put it on a gas burner, and time how long it takes to boil (A). Now put an egg in, and time how long it takes to return to the boil (B). Also note how long the gas is on for from boiling, until the egg is cooked (C).

Now do the same, using exactly the same amount of water in tha same pan, but with the egg already in it. Put it over the same gas burner. Compare the time it takes to get to the boil with A+B. Again note how long the gas is on for from boiling until the egg is cooked and compare this with C.

Now write this all up, and send Big Lad off to school with it instead of his next homework assignment.

Glad to see I'm not the only nutter that does stuff like this!

I've also found that plunging the egg into boiling water as opposed to gradually heating it up results in a different set to the white. It also gives you more control over the runniness of the yolk - hence my extra minutes to achieve different consistencies. I cooked a lot of eggs to arrive at my times!

Oh, and the size of the egg matters too. I use a fairly large egg consistently when boiling, never a bantam egg, a medium size egg or a duck egg for that matter.

The OH did try boiling some duck eggs a couple of months back and couldn't get the result she wanted after two attempts. I told her she should note what she did, what the results were and then repeat several hundred times with similar sized eggs. Her reply is unprintable!

As for the getting the Big Lad to write it up, he already has a journal in which he writes his observations about the weather, animals (including what the boar and the gilt are doing!), soil (he's done extensive soil testing in the vegetable beds), and other things that interest him. All off his own bat, but with plenty of support and encouragement.