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And Now From The Annals Of Over Thinking

hard-boiled-eggs

This past weekend Bossy decided to make a batch of hard-boiled eggs to take to her friend Bobo’s house, where various pals were gathering to swim, where swim equals And wear a bathing suit? no way.

So Bossy placed a dozen eggs into a saucepan, give or take a few eggs — especially take — when suddenly Bossy forgot how long it takes to hard-boil eggs. So she turned to Bossy’s twitter council with the following tweet: Bossy can never ever, with some extra never on the side, remember how long to cook hard boiled eggs. Is it 5 min, or is that corn?

And as always, Bossy’s twitter followers were there to help. The following represents just a small example of the consensus of advice:

I normally cook em till the water is practically gone.

7 min boiled eggs, 2 min corn. Unless you’re my Mother In Law, in which case it’s 15 for both.

Put eggs in cold water. Place pan on stove. Bring to rolling boil. Set timer for 12 min. Remove.

I bring eggs to boil, then cook at boil 5 mins. Turn off heat, allow to set one min, drain & serve.

Bring to boil, turn off burner (but I keep the pot on the burner), cover, 15 minutes.

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Right, so, um, yeah, this would be the moment when Bossy decided to thoroughly investigate the proper cooking of a hard-boiled egg, which means Bossy Googled it while her eggs sat cracking in a rolling boil on the stove.

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And here’s what Bossy learned, from a website named Simply Recipes, which Bossy would soon discover does not mean Simple Recipes:

  1. Use eggs that are several days old. Fresh eggs are difficult to peel.
  2. Put the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan, covered by at least an inch or two of cold water, which will prevent them from cracking.
  3. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water to prevent the egg whites from running out of any eggs that crack while cooking.
  4. Add a half teaspoon of salt to make the eggs easier to peel.
  5. Put the burner on high and bring the eggs to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds.
  6. Reduce the heat to low, return the pan to the burner. Let simmer for one minute.
  7. After a minute, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes.
  8. If you are doing a large batch of eggs, after 10 minutes you can check for doneness by sacrificing one egg, removing it with a slotted spoon, running it under cold water, and cutting it open. If it isn’t done — Sister mercy we are talking about hard-boiled eggs here people — cook the other eggs a minute or two longer. The eggs should be done perfectly at 10 minutes, but sometimes, depending on the shape of the pan, the size of the eggs, the number of eggs compared to the amount of water, and how cooked you like them, it can take a few minutes more.
  9. Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place them into a bowl of ice water.

    10. or

  10. Strain the water from the pan, fill the pan with cold water, strain again, fill again, until the eggs cool down.
  11. Once cooled, strain the water from the eggs.
  12. Store the eggs in a covered container in the refrigerator. They should be eaten within five days.

Five days. Really? Assuming, that is, within that five-day period you have actually completed the above recipe for hard-boiled eggs.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. eggs in cold water.

    turn on high heat.

    water boils, turn down heat to easy rolling boil.

    set timer: 10 minutes.

    when done, rinse with cold water and place immediately (unless you are eating them, of course!) into refrigerator.

    Perfect.

    BH

    Reply

  4. Did BH learn this from BossysMom, cause thats just how I do it….the less thought, the better…
    And corn…lets discuss that too. Fresh corn on cob…into rolling boil, boil for 5 minutes…NO MORE…
    people tend to overcook both….

    Reply

  5. And those pictures …I thought that you had FORGOTTEN eggs and they exploded all over kitchen.
    We’ve all done that!

    Reply

  6. My recipe: Cover eggs with cold water and cook for 20 minutes at medium heat. Couldn’t be easier.

    Reply

  7. I put the eggs in a pot of water, bring to boil; boil for 15 minutes; cool and serve. But then, GreatAunt isn’t exactly known for her delish hard boiled eggs. 😉

    Reply

  8. My Mom taught me Bossy’s Mom’s recipe, which BH uses. I used it yesterday, because I was making potato salad for my DH’s poker friends. So my up to date report is, listen to your Mom.
    Take care, p.j.

    Reply

  9. If it takes them that many words to tell you how to hard-boil eggs (I do it like BH and Bossy’sMom) – I can imagine how many words it would take them for a recipie for ice cubes.

    Which my exhubby needed.

    Reply

  11. After Bossy’s penis/foot/jammy post, is it wrong that my first thought was that perhaps Bossy was boiling a bunch of testicles?

    Reply

  12. I always cook mine for 15 minutes and they always come out perfect. pour hot water out, cold water in and let them cool off for awhile.

    Reply

  13. Learne in Home Economics many years ago. Don’t really boil the eggs. Do put vinegar and salt in the water if you want to peel prettily.

    Cover with a couple of inches of water and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and ignore for about thirty minutes.

    I usually only cook a couple of corn ears at a time. Microwave wrapped in paper towel for four minutes, works for me.

    For a pot of corn on the cob, bring water to boil, drop ears in and cook no more than five minutes – unless you are my mother and expect tough corn, then ten minutes.

    Reply

  14. the only way to boil an egg is: Place the eggs in a saucepan and add enough cold water to cover.
    Bring the water to a boil and immediately turn off the heat. Let the eggs sit in the pan for 5 minutes.
    Follow this and you will have the perfect egg every single time. (My girlfriend Ina taught me this)

    Reply

  17. This is why Red sticks to simple recipes. I’m able to get eggs boiled before I starve to death, but I would be dead with those gourmet recipes requiring multiple trips to the specialty food shops, and the ordering of specialty cooking tools from the Williams-Sonoma, and the reading of the 2 pages long recipe instructions from the ginormous and inappropriately named “Joy of Cooking” book.

    Reply

  20. I cook them exactly as BH said above except I also add ice to my cold water to quickly stop the cooking process that continues after they are turned off. I loathe a green yolked boiled egg which is the result of overcooking. Ewwww. (I store them in a ziploc baggie in the fridge until I’m ready to eat them, but I don’t keep them in water.) Mine are perfect everytime. 10 minutes MAX after the boiling begins.

    Reply

  21. My uncle Peter boiled his eggs for 30 minutes but they still didn’t go soft like potatoes do. True story.

    Anyway, I like mine soft boiled so I can dip the toast soldiers in them.

    Reply

  22. Honey I may not be the best boiled egg maker on the globe, but I laughed til I cried at this post. Sister Mercy.

    And to completely change the subject – is the new photo look at Photoshop action or something from an i-phone app??
    🙂
    BB

    Reply

  24. Wow! My method is much easier. I put the eggs on to boil, take out the garbage, start chatting with any neighbor, ANY, perhaps pull some weeds (who are we kidding? this doesn’t happen) toss sticks for the dog…. and eventually wander back inside. The eggs are always (ahem) done, and no fires! Success.

    Reply

  25. My sure fire way…
    start w/ cold water, do not let them come to a boil, but just as the water starts to bubble, turn the heat off. Let them sit on the burner for exactly 13 minutes. Remove from stove, pour off hot water, pour ICE water over the eggs, let them sit for a few minutes, Refrigerate until you want to eat them…they never turn green this way!

    Seriously, I got this from a “Lunch Room Lady” and it works!

    UP

    Reply

  26. I was about to say what bossy’s friend amy said, so go read that again.

    I remember a couple years ago, watching Food Network and everyone (except maybe Ina and Paula) were *weighing their flour* when they baked. Alton said you have to do it that way to be precise. I kind of panicked! Oh no, I don’t have one of those cute little kitchen scales! It’s not enough to not pack the flour down in the cup, but we have to weigh it?

    Then I remember I’d been baking for 30 years, and everything I baked came out OK, usually much better than OK, and I do the scoop & level with a knife method with my plastic Tupperware measuring cups that I’ve had for nearly all of those 30 years, no scale needed.

    Phew! Forgot to look at my very real life and not experts for a minute there. Glad I remembered.

    Reply

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