My favourite way to eat boiled eggs is with some good butter and a sprinkle of sea salt. Granted, it's not something you can have every day, but it's so delicious every now and then..

Pouring a bit of dark soya sauce on the yolk is my favourite way of eating hard boiled eggs. Brings back a wealth of childhood memories.

Sur La Table also makes this love little gadget that I believe is under $10 that tells you when your eggs are done. I find it indispensable. It's called the egg perfect timer and you boil it with your eggs.

I love the honesty-I never notice them boiling either.

Friends think I'm odd because I keep hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator, but each week when I grocery shop I get a dozen fresh eggs and boil up the remainder of the last carton. There's always 4-6 hard boiled eggs on-hand. Need a quick snack/meal-egg salad sandwich! Salad needs something-slice a hard boiled egg up. Dog is being a picky eater-slice a hard boiled egg over his food. How's that ad go? The incredible edible egg!

It sounds like you're saying that running the boiled still-in-the-shell egg under cold water, you can tell if it's cooked enough. How does that work?

I just adore hard boiled eggs too! When it's not a work day, my favorite way to eat them is to boil the eggs, then while they're still warm, mash with a bit of butter (or if I'm feeling very virtuous I use something like Smart Balance) and then season with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. I never get tired of eating this!

Good boiled eggs lead to great Deviled Eggs!

Thank you, thank you for this! I have struggled for years on how to make the perfect hard-boiled egg (re: one with a lovely yellow yolk).

Hi Elise;

I have heard that adding vinegar to the boiling eggs is just a myth. My mother did it, I do it, and everyone I know does it. I'm going to write to the American Egg Board and find out once and for all.

By the way a quick and effective way to clean up a broken egg that's fallen to the floor. Just sprinkle a little salt, I use the kosher one, on the egg. The salt coagulates the sticky mixture, making it easy to scoop up with a paper towel.

Elise, thank you for a terrific food blog! My family and I have enjoyed several of your recipes.

I must say that today's recipe and yesterday's recipe on poached salmon simply don't work for us. We live at an elevation of 6300 ft, where the boiling point of water is about 12 degrees lower than at sea level. Any recipe that calls for bringing water to boiling then taking it off the heat simply won't cook the food for us.

Is there is "sure-fire" adaptation to these sorts of recipes that will work for us?

I love hard-boiled eggs, rather eggs that are almost hard boiled with a slightly runny yolk. My significant other loves them cooked (and usually) until they are like bricks with a ring of green, this is a great way for us to reach a happy medium! Thank you!

I agree with all your steps Elise except for the way to tell that they are done. I spoon one out and run under cold water for a second, then I spin the egg on the counter and if it spins perfectly and doesn't wobble like a weeble wobble, I know the eggs are cooked to perfection. Whoever gave me this tip told me that a raw egg won't spin like a top but a cooked egg will - I don't know where I heard this or who to give the credit to, but it works!

I read about a similar method in the New York Times a couple of years ago, and I've had nothing but perfectly boiled eggs since. Hard to imagine, but it's even easier than this. Once the water is boiling, simply clamp on a tight-fitting lid and turn off the heat. Leave them on the now-cooling burner 10 minutes and then cool the eggs. I like it because it doesn't require the minute of simmering time and me remembering to come back and turn off the heat and take them off the burner. Now that I'm writing it, though, maybe this method works only on electric burners, which would allow a more gradual reduction of heat -- simulating the simmering time in this method?

This is exactly how I cook my eggs. I've never had any crack this way either.

That tip about the eggs spinning like a top is cute! I doubted it at first, but I just tried spinning some raw eggs and they definitely weeble-wobbled over the counter. I'll have to try with the cooked eggs next time to confirm the rest of the theory!

I've always done something similar. I bring to a boil with cold water, then turn off the heat and cover for 17 min. (I know that's a lot longer than your time, but it's the way I learned it, so I've always done it that way.) I use a gas range.

By the way, in step 2 above, you say in one place to bring to a gentle boil, and then say to use high heat for the boil. Do you use gentle or high heat?

Thanks for all the great tips!

I always understood that the vinegar acted on the calcium on the shell to "soften" it thereby making it less prone to cracking. Lemon juice does the same thing (A good use for yucky bottled lemon juice). Incidentally, the egg shells are good for the garden! I suppose the calcium neutralizes acidic soil. Just a guess., though.

A trick I found from a guy that sells food to construction sites...for easy peeling add about a quarter of a teaspoon of salt to the water. Works like magic, doesn't matter if the eggs are old or new!

Actually there is a much easier method to safely boil eggs. Normally the shell cracks because of the air that's inside the egg which expands when the temperature rises. So before you put the egg in the water, just use a little needle (here in Germany we even got devices for that) and make a tiny hole in the bottom (bottom as in the flat side of the egg, not the pointy one)... don't sting the egg too deeply as this would damage the membrane inside and would cause liquid to leak out.
After doing that, you'll see air coming out of the egg while it boils inside the water.

Everyone has an opinion on boiling eggs! My two cents:
(1) I've found free-range eggs typically have thicker shells, meaning you can lower them into boiling water with little fear of cracking.
(2) Getting the boiled eggs into ice water immediately from the pot of hot water makes them easier to peel. (I think I learned that one from Alton Brown.)

I recall the egg-spinning test differently. You spin the egg on its side, then very quickly press down on it (ever so briefly) with one finger to stop it, finally and let up. With a hard-boiled egg, the egg will just sit there after you release it (or start rolling off the surface its on). However, an uncooked egg will start to spin again! This happens because the yolk continues to spin independently from the eggshell itself.

This doesn't help though if the egg is mostly cooked, to the point where the yolk is more of a solid than a liquid.

Oh well, its a fun trick to entertain children.a

Re eggs: It's very fashionable these days to say "sea salt". Here in Greece all salt is sea salt. What is the alternative? Are they still selling salt from Salzburg and Avery Island? I thought that went out with horses going blind in the mines after years of almost no light.

This is the method I used when I lived in California, except I found that if I cracked all the eggs before putting them in ice water, they were sure to peel easily. Now that I live at 5500 ft here in Arizona, once they come to a boil I turn the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes - that's for extra large eggs. They come out perfect.

One episode of Good Eats recommended that you hard-boil eggs in an electric kettle. I tried it out, and it works great. Put in the eggs, cover with cold water, and flip it on. Come back about 15-minutes later and rinse them with cold water to slow down the cooking. It works like a charm every time (though I suppose you could argue that it's a pain to clean the kettle).

I enjoy hard-boiled eggs with hot sauce. This post will help.

Bob,
I'm with you the best way is with hot sauce!

So, it is not ok to eggs everyday? why? Can you elaborate on that please.

The sure fire way to prevent the eggs from cracking is a couple of shakes of salt in the cold water from the beginning. No need for vinegar or the needle...I PROMISE you they will not crack! :0)

Yes to Adissa's comment! I use poultry trussing needles or the tines of a boiled corn holder to poke a small hole in the bottom of each egg, drop them in gently boiling water for 12 minutes, then remove them into very cold water for a minute or so. They are always perfectly cooked and remarkably easy to peel. My mother thinks I am insane for doing it this way, of course.

I enjoy hard-boiled eggs with tomato-canned tuna mixed with the egg yolks and served inside the egg whites

Another way to check and see if a hard-boiled egg is done is to take it out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and count to 8. If the shell is perfectly dry at the count of 8, your egg is done. Works every time for me! If it still has a wet spot past 8, then it needs to cook for a bit longer. (This trick and the spinning trick are fun ones.)

Excellent tips here, Elise! Though I've read a lot about how to boil eggs correctly, you still taught me a few things to try. Thanks!

Well, I guess I've been boiling my eggs incorrectly all this time. ;)

My method on a gas stove is that it takes twenty minutes to cook eggs from start to finish (I'm in SF and probably pretty close to sea level).

I put the eggs in a pan, run cold water over them and put the pan on the stove on medium high. When I notice it's come to a boil (usually a little after it's come to a boil) I turn it down to low to simmer. When it's been twenty minutes since I put the pan on the stove I take it off. No green rings, never hard as a rock yolk, always cooked through (I hate them runny). This isn't for soft boiled eggs.

After the twenty minutes have elapsed I take the pan to the sink and begin running cold water from the faucet directly into the pan and over the eggs until they are cool enough to handle and don't become hot again after a couple minutes.

I always make only what I'm going to eat as for some odd reason I have an aversion to cold boiled eggs that have been in the fridge unless they're in potato salad. :)

My Mamma always taught me to use a little lemon juice in the boiling water for poached eggs. It helps keep the white together, so I imagine it would work just as well for boiled eggs, but I never have the shell cracking problem with my method of making them. She also taught me that if you crack the egg all around on a hard surface (counter, edge of the pan, etc) and peel it from the "large" end, you'll never have a problem with getting it out of the shell unless it's under or over cooked.

Starting from the middle or the little end seems to cause more problems, even with "aged" eggs.

Charles: Not sure this would work, but what about a steamer? Do those work at high altitudes?

hi. i hate to say this, but i think you're overcomplicating things a bit. i find the best, and simplest, way to cook hardboiled eggs is to bring salted water to a boil, then carefully place the eggs into the pot with a slotted spoon, and let boil for 6 to 8 minutes, depending upon how hard-boiled you like your eggs. then quickly run cold water over them to cool. three steps, and presto, easy to peel, deliciously textured hard boiled eggs.

When I was in Italy, I had a breakfast of HBEs and olive oil. Highly recommended!

I eat my morning hard boiled eggs with light soya sauce and white pepper -- been doing that ever since I was a little girl. Sooo good!

All the advice for boiling eggs is good but the correct cooking time is best determined by trial & error, after all its not a big deal to forfeit a few eggs.
The only thing I can add to all the good advice is I place a cloth in the bottom of the pan. This way I do not have to worry about the temperature nor eggs bumping around and guess what, no cracked eggs.

I have never read so much information about boiled eggs, I do it without thinking. But I think it is important to teach easy things, because we just forget to teach them! I just start a new American blog about easy french cook, I would be happy to have your thinking.

If you live at high altitudes, couldn't you always try to bake the eggs? It seems you could set the oven to low (I think eggs fully cook around 160F?) and just let them bake away. =)

The most accurate way to consistently boil either hard or soft boiled eggs is to purchase a Oster egg boiler. It has the correct measuring water quantity for either soft or hard. Mine cooks up to seven eggs at a time. When the water boils out, the unit shuts off and you have perfectly cooked eggs every time.

Wow, everyone has something to say about boiling eggs, huh?

One tip I've heard (possibly from Alton Brown) is to use a pin to make a tiny hole in the bottom of each eggshell. Apparently this releases built up pressure inside the egg and will prevent it from cracking. Can't say I've ever tried it before, I've never had to patience to sit there puncturing a dozen eggs before putting them in the saucepan.

Hi Elise,

Has Kathleen seen this article? I'm sending it to her.

Hello Elise,

Seems to me another major problem with hard boiled eggs is cooking them in such a way that they peel easily. I've heard lots of theories about this. Would love to hear you weigh in on this!

This article and these comments are wonderful...Thanks for posting! I especially like the use of less energy... I always boiled my eggs until they were done... now all I have to do is use enough gas to bring them to a boil and then simmer for a minute... very nice. Also... I have a kinda strange addition to the comments...somewhere along the line I found that if I was peeling an egg and it was difficult to peel, that if I just either closed my eyes or peeled it without looking at it, it was never a problem. I figured that I was just me getting frustrated and forcing a delicate thing...know it sounds silly, but all of the women in my family use this now and no more torn up eggs! :) Thanks again...

My tried and true method for dealing with those sticky unpeelable peels: roll egg on countertop using enough pressure so the shell gets crackled all over (you know, in a million pieces but still intact). Toss back into pot of cool water and let sit a minute or two. The water seeps under the shell making it a breeze to peel.

PS- FWIW, I'm in the 'bring to boil/cover and turn off heat/time for 15 minutes' camp

For those that really want to know why adding vinegar works. Egg is largely protein and when you cook the egg you are actually denaturing the protein (that is a good thing) using heat. The vinegar, or lemon juice, makes the water acidic. Acid can penetrate the semi-permeable egg shell and denature the protein. (Much of the water supply is a little acidic anyways but the higher the concentration of acid the more quickly and throughly the protein is denatured.) It usually just denatures the protein on the outside and you heat your egg to denature the rest of the protein. The solid denatured protein prevents any other still liquid protein from escaping until you have finished cooking your egg.

As a further interesting note, if you let an egg sit in acid (more concentrated is better) such as vinegar or lemon juice, you can denature the entire egg without cooking it. It will also 'eat' the entire shell. the shell is largely calcium carbonate which will react with the acid to produce carbon dioxide and water.

Re shells: Not only are the shells good for your garden, but birds will eat pieces of shell to recover the calcium lost in laying their own
Thanks to everyone for the wealth of info!

What - no discussion on centering the yolks? Perfect deviled eggs must have the yolk centered. I do this by placing the eggs on their sides in the refrigerator for 24 hours before boiling. Try it - it works.

The best way to have HB eggs that are easy to peel-boil the water first, turn the temperature down and lower the eggs into the already boiling water. They peel like a banana.

Eggs are the new Fortune Cookie--Write a message, joke or "fortune" on your HB eggs and share in a bowl at work. Much better than doughnuts, and fun, too.
And I'm not "eggs"agerating!
Sunshine

Try sprinkling a little salt in the water while boiling the eggs. It makes it easier to remove the shell.

Hetal and Anuja

My "no fail" way of boiling eggs is really simple. I put them in the pan first, then fill the pan with water at least an inch or more above the top of the eggs. Then, I place them on the stove with the burner set to high, and set the timer for 20 minutes. After about ten minutes I check to see if the water is boiling yet. If so, I turn the burner down a bit so the eggs boil on a low boil. I rarely have more than one egg crack (slightly) with this method.

Once the timer goes off, I remover the pan, carefully pour out the hot water so as not to crack the eggs while slowly refilling the pan with cold water to stop the cooking. I let them sit for about 5 minutes, and then eat or refrigerate for later.

This method has worked successfully for me at sea level, and altitudes as high as 3000 ft. The yolks are never discolored from over-cooking.

My French friend, Florence, once showed me a lovely way to enjoy hard boiled eggs. You slice up some tomato (heirlooms are great if you can get them, or any variety of tomato you like), 1/2 an avocado sliced or cubed, and 3 sliced eggs, and make a salad. I drizzle it with some extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I'm partial to celery seed, so I generally add that, too. In fact, I just finished eating it for lunch today! It's also quite lovely as the colors of the eggs, avocado and tomato look nice together.

The best way to eat a hard-boiled egg is with a dash of Tabasco sauce on each bite. Tabasco goes with eggs like peanut butter does with jelly.

Our favorite way to eat hard boiled eggs: With hot salt (mostly hot cayenne, some light salt, and black pepper mixed), and if eating hot, add a few drops of olive oil on them instead of any butter type product. To die for!

To stop the eggs from cracking, I pre-warm them for about 15 minutes in a very warm water bath in a plastic bowl. While they are warming I prepare my stock pot and start the water boiling. Then I use a slotted spoon to dip them carefully in. The better they are pre-warmed, the less cracking.

For Altitude, they might try this. After placing the eggs in the boiling water, turn the temp down to low or med. low and COVER the pot. SIMMER covered instead of boiling uncovered. I use 13 to 14 minutes at sea level using simmer/slight boil and my yolks do pretty well. At altitude they can simmer a little longer. Using the low burner setting seems to be better for getting really good looking hard boiled eggs. A loud timer will get you back to take them off the burner. Better yet, keep the timer with you.

I am anxious to try your method the next time I boil eggs. Thanks. Great website by the way!

For high altitude, you can follow her recipe except instead of turning the stove off, turn it down to low. When I lived at an altitude of 5500, I would put my eggs in a pot, cover with cold water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, turn down to low and cook for 15 mintues.

For easy-to-peel eggs: there is a very thin membrane between the shell and the inside of the egg. You have to ensure that water can seep in between the membrane and the cooked egg or else the egg sticks to it and breaks apart when you try to peel it. By cracking the cooked egg well and rolling it around on the countertop to really crack it good, you also tear the membrane a bit. Then, running it under water while peeling or submerging it in cold water, as others have mentioned, the water gets through the tears, between the membrane and the egg, and allows the shell and membrane both to slip right off.

I just tried the egg with butter for the first time - delicious. Tomorrow I'll try the olive oil!

I love eggs-fried, scrambled, poached, in an omelette or boiled. I recently discovered cooking poached and boiling eggs with an egg cooker. I am soooo happy with my egg cooker! There are a number of brands sold; I got the Oster brand. I love it. I have had to experiment a bit to get them right, but I find it much easier to get them the way I want them than by boiling or poaching on the stove.

I had always loved to EAT hard boiled eggs ... but had never cooked them before ... Using the method for an electric stove (and a dash of salt and red wine vinegar) my first batch of eggs cooked up perfectly.

I just hard-boiled four eggs - one did not make it! Then I got on-line to your site. I should have gotten on-line first! Thanks for the info!

I always keep a straight pin with a roud tip and pierce the egg at the largest part. It lets the air out.

Regarding boiling eggs at high altitude. A way to raise the boiling temperature of the water is to add salt. You can test the mixture ahead of time to determine how much salt you need to add for the volume of water you want to boil. The salt raises the boiling point (and lowers the freezing point).
Bud

Great idea, thanks Bud! ~Elise

I cannot believe I am enjoying a web site about hard boiled eggs. Thanks everyone for all these tips.

One tip I did not see. If you want fancy HB eggs that last, after you finish your favorite pickles don't toss the jar and juice. Peel those eggs and put them in there. After a week or so, wow.

Great tip, Fred. Thanks! ~Elise

For years I have had trouble with hard-to-peel boiled eggs, and for the heck of it, I typed in Boiled Eggs in google today. As God is my witness, I shall never have that problem again! Thankyou, Elise, for helping me make my first batch of ez-peel HB eggies today!

I just saw last week on Paula Deen......use lots of salt in your water when boiling eggs and they should peel easier......works for me! I usually take so much pain taking the yellows out with a spoon before deviling.....she just pops them out!

I keep wanting to make deviled eggs, but wind up making egg salad instead. I put vinegar and salt in the water; boil for minute and let set for 15 minutes; put in icewater for a few minutes. The only problem is the yolks are lopsided. They are never centered. Why?

The real secret to prevent cracking of the egg shell is to poke a small pin hole in the large end of the shell - this is where the air bubble is so allows the expanded air to escape as the egg heats. Also I bring the water to a boil before putting in the eggs - set my timer at 6 1/2 minutes - when the timer goes off ( it reminds me I'm doing eggs ) I immediately drain and run in cold water. This gives me a perfect soft boiled egg EVERY time - no guess work. Eight minutes will give you a hard boiled & Ten minutes is enough for Devilled eggs

Bud Kinney on January 31, 2008 3:22 PM

"One tip I did not see. If you want fancy HB eggs that last, after you finish your favorite pickles don't toss the jar and juice. Peel those eggs and put them in there. After a week or so, wow."

Bud,

Must you wait until the pickles are gone? Will it effect either's taste much?

This was very helpful but we did buy our eggs at the last minute it's the Friday before easter. What to do?

If you hard boil them, crack one and it is hard to peel, put the rest back in the fridge and don't crack them for several days. ~Elise

I tried this recipe and NOPE it did not work.. I even left the eggs in the pan for 15 monutes and they were still undercooked.. I was dissapointed.

Hi Jenn, many factors can influence cooking time, including size and shape of your pan, how many eggs are in the pan, your altitude, the ratio of water to eggs in the pan. This method works for most people, but sometimes you have to tweak given your particular circumstances. Try increasing the amount of water in the pan. Or if you are high altitude, cooking longer. ~Elise

I've been using a similar method for years...many, many years, sigh :). I bring eggs to boil then shut off heat and forget for 15 minutes (a timer works well). Drain in pot and beat them about in the pot then fill with cold water. This is where we differ. I peal them while they are still warm. They are easier to peel when warm and if I am making egg salad this is also where I break them up. Again they are easier to break up when warm. Then I leave in covered container in fridge. If I am using them for halves I don't cut them until cold. That way they don't crumble.

I dropped the eggs into boiling water. I think the air pocket expanded to make a void in the "white". Here's a photo: view

My goodness! I think I'll just crack a raw one and toss it down with a squirt of Tobasco! Such a fuss. Here's an easy trick: to peel a hard boiled egg if you don't need it whole, just guillotine the egg at the beltline with a sharp chef's knife and use a small spoon to scoop out the egg. This is a VERY FAST and TIDY technique.

Thank you very much for this post, and all the useful comments from everybody! My friend always has a good chuckle at the fact that I cannot boil an egg to save my life. So, I found this post, and decided to try it with the last two eggs in my fridge. I'd like to announce that these directions are wonderfully specific, and I have now, for the first time in my life, perfectly boiled an egg.

Peeling the first one was a pain; I couldn't get past the membrane, so it felt like the rubber of a dog's chew toy, and fiddling the shell and that membrane was a long and frustrating process. Then I remembered a friend's tip to start it with a spoon at the flat end. The second shell just peeled off in a fifth of the time the first one took me.

As for centering the yolk for deviled eggs, my friend just served these a couple of nights ago, and she said the trick was to leave them on their side overnight in the fridge. Her eggs looked great.