Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs, Every Time!

 So many of my friends have horror stories about growing up eating less-than-perfect hard boiled eggs.  And after all, if the adults in your life couldn't make a hard boiled egg that didn't have a grey, crumbly yolk and a rubbery white, then why should you expect to be able to do any differently?  Well, you should.  And now (luckily for you), there's no more excuses as to why you can't have perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs every single time you make them.

This method comes from an old Betty Crocker cookbook tucked away in my mom's kitchen, and it hasn't failed us, yet.  I also have a few tricks that I use in conjunction with the Betty Crocker method, which I've added in.

Now, let's get crackin!  Sort of...

Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

Prep Time: negligible

Cooking Time: 30+- minutes

Yield: Variable

Ingredients:

-  Fresh Eggs (as many as you'd like)
-  Cold Water

Directions: 

1) Place your eggs gently in the bottom of a pot.  Make sure that the eggs lay in ONE LAYER on the bottom of the pot.  This is important for two reasons: 1) even temperature distribution and 2) less of a chance that the eggs will knock together while boiling and crack.

2)  Fill the pot with COLD water so that the level of water is about 1 inch above the top of the eggs.

3)  Place the pot on the stove and cover.  Turn the heat as high up as you can (medium-high for electric is usually about as high as you should go, but I'll often go to high, anyway) to bring the water to a boil as rapidly as possible.

4)  AS SOON AS THE WATER COMES TO A BOIL:  Turn the heat off, and remove the pot from the hot burner.  Why is this important?  If you leave the pot on the burner, the burner will continue to heat the water (it doesn't immediately get cool just because you've shut the power off), and the eggs will become overcooked.  This applies mainly to electric stoves, but gas stove supports can also become heated by the flames, so it's best to move the pot off whatever burner you were just using onto a cool one.

5)  Leaving the lid on the pot, let it just sit there for 22-24 minutes.

6)  While the pot of eggs is sitting off the burner, prepare a secondary bowl.  Fill the bowl with very cold water, and place it in your kitchen sink under the tap.  Make sure the tap water is also going to be nice and cold when it comes out of the tap.

7)  At the end of the 22-24 minutes, take a slotted spoon/wire scoop/etc. and transfer the eggs directly into the bowl of cold water.  Turn on the tap, and have the cold water running through the bowl while you're transferring the eggs.  Leave the tap running for a minute or two.

This last step is crucial to having perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs.

Why, do you ask?  For the same reasons that leaving the pot on the burner is a no-no: you will end up overcooking the eggs.  Remember, the eggshell is like a little insulator, trapping the heat so that the egg continues to cook long after you've stopped adding heat to it.  If you don't do something to remove that heat - and remove it quickly - you will end up overcooking the eggs.

Once the eggs have cooled for a few minutes under the cold water, it's time to peel!  Unless, of course, you are planning on dyeing the eggs or not using them immediately. 

Note: If you are not planning on using the eggs immediately, I recommend storing them with the shell on.  Keep in mind, though, that the eggs will not be as easy to peel and you run the risk of them overcooking.  If you are going to store the eggs, leave them in the cold water longer to make sure the heat is fully drawn out.  Peeling immediately removes the insulator, so it's not as much of a problem!

Peeling the Eggs - My way.

Is it reeeeally necessary for me to do a primer on peeling hard-boiled eggs?  Probably not, but I will do it anyway.  It's especially important to peel an egg properly when you're going to make a dish like deviled eggs that requires a nice, whole egg white.

1) Lay out a piece of paper towel to make cleanup easier, and gently knock the egg on the paper towel all the way around, creating cracks throughout the surface of the eggshell.

2) Find the air bubble.  Every egg has one.  There is air trapped inside the egg, and when the egg is floating in the water as it boils, the air bubble will rise above the yolk and white because it isn't as dense.  The yolk and white then solidify, trapping the air bubble permanently in one spot right on the edge of the egg.

3) Once you've found the air bubble, take off the shell above the air bubble.

4) Continue removing the shell, separating the membrane from the egg white.  This membrane is clear, and rests between the egg white and the shell.  The shell sticks to the membrane, so peeling off the membrane is the easiest way to also remove the shell.

5) If there are miniscule shell pieces still stuck to the egg white, don't worry!  All you have to do is run the egg under a gentle stream of cold water, and the shell pieces will wash right off.  Then, dry with a paper towel.

6)  Voila!  You now have a perfectly cooked, perfectly peeled, ready to eat, beautiful hard boiled egg!