Perfect hard-boiled eggs - every time.

[mosparky]

Heck, I'll give it a shot. I gave up on sooo many recipes involving boiled eggs, just because of the frustration of peeling the dang things,
Back in the day I almost never had trouble peeling eggs and I'm pretty dang sure Mom never did. She did alot of boiled egg dishes, I'm sure I would have noticed.
What changed ?? Probably Water Treatment at the municipal water works. Adding fluoride and god knows what to purify, or what ever they filter out.

 

[DemonPit]

I forgot to add. The fresher the eggs are, the more difficult they are to peel.

 

[gmc2003]

Now that I think about it, I didn't shower today, so I'm 13 gallons ahead. I could boil/cool 32.5 more eggs!

Thought I smelled something funky when I logged on.

Chris

 

[Coreymacc]

I use the same technique as Corey. Works great. . .Corey, how long do you steam your eggs?

John

I do hard boiled for 18min haven't done soft boiled for a while, i can't remember on those.

Corey

 

[SmokinEdge]

My experience over my life, and this is with either raising chickens or access to farm fresh eggs, is that we always rotated the eggs newest (layed today) to oldest In refrigerator. The old eggs were the ones we boiled, they were always 3-4 weeks old then we just boiled them. Process is straightforward. Boiling water, eggs close to room temp (plan ahead and get them on the counter) we boil for 12 minutes, water temp boiling is 200F. They peel great and have perfect yokes. That said if you boil eggs right out the chicken’s arse they are very hard to peel usually. Hence the reason we always boil older eggs because they peel easier.

This would be a great experiment for BGKYSmoker to delve into. He has eggs fresh off the assembly line to older eggs. He could document the time line and note the difference.

 

[noboundaries]

Thought I smelled something funky when I logged on.

Chris

That was the eggs, Chris.

(Sniff).

Wellllll...maybe not.

 

[chopsaw]

Thought I smelled something funky

Maybe those eggs peeled them selves .

 

[smokerjim]

After going nuts reading every easy-peel hard-boiled egg solution ever dreamed up by humankind, I came up with this, and it works every time I have tried it, no matter the source, pedigree, or age of the eggs.

I love hard boiled eggs.

Use a large pot (large because you do not want it to take long for the water to come back up to temperature after you add the eggs) of salted water (I just use a 3-finger pinch) that will generously cover the eggs by an inch at least. Heat the water until "right before the boil" and add your eggs with a spoon so they do not crack when they hit the bottom of the pot. Let the water come back to a boil and cook 9-minutes (cook time will vary depending on your altitude). Then remove the eggs to a bowl of water in the sink with cool tap water running over them for at least 15-minutes and then refrigerate.

You will know that you got things just right when you see small streams of bubbles rising up from your eggs right after you add them to the water. Some of the eggs might crack slightly but that is OK - they may not look perfect when finished but will still be cooked perfect and be easy to peel. Once you get your water temperature technique down, you will get very few cracked eggs.

This is an egg from a batch I cooked yesterday for some red potato salad. I always add a few extra to the pot to eat, and this one cracked, so I used it for this photo - about 10-minutes after placing in the bowl of running water in the sink - still warm and perfectly delicious! I peeled it extra careful to demonstrate how easy they are to peel when using this cooking method.

View attachment 671884

This is an egg that sat in the fridge for a few hours - peeled perfect.

View attachment 671885

And this is that same egg cut in half to show the perfectly cooked yolk (no green outside of yolk that is the result of overcooking).

View attachment 671886

A pinch of salt and down the hatch - delicious.

My theory is that placing the eggs in almost boiling water shocks that membrane between the shell and the egg making them peel clean and easy. Eggs added to full boiling water often crack badly and while they may not look perfect, they still peel easy and taste great.

Give the cook technique a try and let me know your results.

Hey RS , I gave your method a try this morning and got to say it works, I tried it with 2 day old eggs and they peeled quite easily, which never happened,I did have one crack but as you said it didnt affect anything. The only thing I think I did wrong was started the 9 minute count when I put the eggs in I think I was supposed to start the timer when the water started to boil ? which led to slightly undercooked but tasty eggs. Anyway it does work. Thanks

 

[Retired Spook]

Hey RS , I gave your method a try this morning and got to say it works, I tried it with 2 day old eggs and they peeled quite easily, which never happened,I did have one crack but as you said it didnt affect anything. The only thing I think I did wrong was started the 9 minute count when I put the eggs in I think I was supposed to start the timer when the water started to boil ? which led to slightly undercooked but tasty eggs. Anyway it does work. ThanksView attachment 672333

It took me a few tries to figure out what worked for me - first I was bringing the water to a full boil, adding the eggs, and cooking for 10-minutes, but lots of eggs cracked...

Then one day I got lazy and added the eggs early and waited for the water to boil (using a heavy pot to retain heat) and cooked for 10-minutes and the eggs came out perfect. I use 9-minutes now because it seems like that is all the eggs need to come out perfect for me.

I tried it once in a stock pot (a bit lighter) and did not like the results - I think the water cooled and took too long to come back to temp and start boiling and the egg yolks started to turn green on the outside.

So, it was a trial and error thing that I believe everyone will have to work through depending on the results they get!

But your eggs look great - close to something folks called "soft-boiled-eggs" when I was a kid!

 

[noboundaries]

I'm thinking that the reason they peel so easy might be twofold: the addition of salt to the water, and the cool water bath, not ice water, at the end.

I used to steam 18 eggs a week for a quick protein snack. I bathed them in ice water when done (I had a steam timing schedule based on whether I wanted a soft, gelled, or hard yolk). I used store bought eggs taken directly from the fridge and placed in a steamer pot.

I once tried boiling them instead of steam, followed by the ice bath, but they didn't peel any easier. I gave up due to the peeling problem.

The addition of salt to the boil water and the cool water bath are really the only two differences from what I've done. I'm going to try 18 eggs in the steamer pot, but submersing the eggs in the boiling salted water, followed by the cool water bath. Will probably do it this week.

 

[chp]

We also try to rotate our eggs so we use what is oldest. They do not go in the fridge. We use an old Betty Crocker method. Put eggs in a pot and cover with an inch of water. Bring the pot to a boil, turn off heat and wait 24 minutes, drain off water and add water until the water stays cool. Let it sit…roll the HB eggs between your hands before peeling. Works good for us. Never really tried anything else cause if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

 

[fltsfshr]

Anyone notice any difference between Grade AA and Grade A in hard boiled eggs?

 

[zwiller]

Wife refuses to change and does pretty much what you're doing here. I tried the 555 IP method and that's what I do if "I" peel. If you got one it's worth a try but not sure I would say to get one for that alone. That said, I use my IP WAAAY more than I ever thought when I first got it. Seems to me IP eggs are less stinky but maybe confirmation bias.

 

[ifitsdeadsmokeit]

same way I make my boiled eggs, but I dont run water over them for 15 minutes. I just empty out the boiling water and add cold so they are just covered, let sit until water turns hot, empty again and refill and let sit for a few more minutes. easy to peal and delicious to eat.

 

[chopsaw]

Bring the pot to a boil, turn off heat and wait 24 minutes, drain off water and add water until the water stays cool.

Been using that for years , except I use 15 minutes after turning the heat off . Peel under running cold water .

 

[Retired Spook]

I also wonder if, especially for corporation eggs, our profit-motivated food science geniuses have engineered egg production to the point where something changed with the eggs and they do not boil and peel as great as they did when I was a kid.

The yolks certainly look paler and the eggs are runnier than they were back in the day...

 

[zwiller]

I also wonder if, especially for corporation eggs, our profit-motivated food science geniuses have engineered egg production to the point where something changed with the eggs and they do not boil and peel as great as they did when I was a kid...

They probably maxed out yield and turn time at the cost of quality.

If anyone wonders how restaurants do it. They don't. They buy them ready to go. Not really that expensive and no brainer move for a business.

I might take one for the team and grab one of the $10 egg cookers and report back. Amazon reviews are stellar. Main reason for me is perfect centering of the yolk as you pierce the shell going in.

 

[noboundaries]

I might take one for the team and grab one of the $10 egg cookers and report back.

My wife has one of those, or at least an earlier version. We've had it for 20+ years. That's where I got the idea to steam eggs. It worked great when we first got it, but over time, the egg shells cracked more when piercing the eggs with the device that was included. And the eggs became harder to peel. We stopped using it.

I'll see if I can find it in the cabinet and post a picture.

 

[Retired Spook]

I already have enough gadgets in closets - in fact I have been scaling down and have been giving them away - next up is the toaster oven taking up counter space, that I have not used in 2-years...

The pot of boiling water works fine for me!

 

[noboundaries]

I'll see if I can find it in the cabinet and post a picture.

I looked where both of us thought it was. Not there. We must have Good-Willed it.

I'm with RS. A pot works fine. We've got 6 eggs in the fridge, and I'm headed to the grocery store later today. Time to RS those 6 eggs!