How to boil an egg.

sooo what came first the carton or the egg?

YOU BOIL YOUR EGG FOR 30 MINUTES????

Surely that must be a mistake!

GoogleVideo: How to peel an egg

hahahahahahihihihihihihohohohoho....

This may be one of the best kept secrets in the world. Most people would be ashamed to admit of such a thing. But are you aware that,

THERE ARE SOME EGGS THAT ARE SIMPLY NOT "PEELERS"!!!

You can do all the fancy footwork that you want, stand on your head, and wiggle your nose, but some eggs simply refuse to peel. There is something most frustrating in having an egg peel 1mm at a time. You end up having all these miniscule pieces of egg shell. If the egg is not completely boiled, that is even worse.

I like eggs where the yolks are not completely hardened. In that case, one needs to ensure that a little sliver of shell does not make its way into your salad. Having your molars crunch against a foreign object while eating egg salad can be most distressing!

Why would anyone boil an egg for 30 min?

Here is an excellent article written by a lecturer in physics at the University of Exeter. In it you will learn more than you ever wanted to know:



http://newton.ex.ac.uk/teaching/CDHW/egg/

For those who REALLY want to get to the heart of the matter, here is the complete discussion, with formulae:


http://newton.ex.ac.uk/teaching/CDHW/egg/CW050224-1.pdf

To be sure you get rid of the salmonellas?

I'm going to try that.

Zoofer, sorry but if you have an egg in near boiling water for 30 minutes the white will be the rubber and the yolk will have that nasty green coating.

Plus putting an egg directly into boiling water will crack it. I'm actually not sure about if you leave it out overnight, but most people are not going to do that.

Here is how you hard boil eggs....

Run very warm water into a pot, place eggs in pot so they are submerged and leave for 5 minutes so eggs will acclimate.

Place on flame and bring water up to barely a boil, turn off heat, cover pot and let eggs sit for 15 minutes (17 if very large)

While eggs are sitting, fill a large bowl with ice, add cold water.

When eggs are done, plunge them into the ice water. This causes the white to retract from the shell.

Those clunkers you get that won't peel correctly are actually eggs that are TOO fresh. Eggs that are a few days old will peel much easier.

You will get eggs is a firm yet delicate white, and a bright yellow yolk.

Nooooo. You add salt, turn of the fire, and cover the pot for 30 minutes, not boil it for 30 minutes - like the original poster said. Cavfancier gave somewhat similar instructions several years ago.

You are just SO wrong Roger....

I say we go to the A2K Test Kitchen and settle this once and for all.

Then, we'll all have egg salad sandwiches for lunch.

I have Cav's instructions committed to memory. In fact, I cannot boil an egg now without thinking of him.

Place an egg into cool water, then place on high heat. When water begins to boil, cover the pan and remove it from the stove. Let stand for 11* minutes. Then rinse in cold water and peel.








*I like 15 minutes better.

Apparantly there is a huge discrepancy in how Eva and Rogers heard cav's instructions.....30 minutes versus 11.

Here is a portion from the website Phoenix referred to...

Hard-Boiling
Again, there are two common approaches, both are described by Learn2.com. The first is to put the eggs into a pan of boiling water, cook for twice the time required to soft-boil them then plunge into cold water. Alternatively, put the eggs into a pan of cold water and it bring to the boil, then remove the heat and let the pan stand with its lid on for about seventeen minutes, finally cool the eggs with cold water.
These procedures are intended to prevent the yolk temperature getting too high (about 70°C) when hydrogen sulphide generated by the decomposition of sulphur-containing amino acids in the white will react with iron in the yolk causing a (harmless) grey-green film of ferrous sulphide to form on the surface of the yolk. Close inspection of a 'greened' yolk sometimes reveals several concentric rings; the yolk develops within the hen in spherical layers and the rings reflect variation in the iron content of the hen's feed or water.





I rest my case.

What, no lasers?

Cav did not say 11 minutes lightly. He was one of the world's great chefs. Not to say 15 mins won't work mind you.

Well a little experimental cooking times are required for individual tastes. For the perfect hard boiled egg 30 minutes is required. The number of eggs and the amount of water will have an effect. You need hard yolks for deviled eggs.

Some posters missed the 'remove from heat' instruction. And thanks to Chai Tea the unsightly green around the yolk is explained.
Also if tapped correctly the shell will peel off easily along with the thin membrane underneath it.

I rest MY case!

Cavfancier's own words...
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27622&highlight=boil+eggs

I guess I should apologise for not searching back in history to see if some dude posted an article on boiling eggs.

However I was Googling for a recipe on devilled eggs. The method of boiling the eggs is how I described it. I did not like the devilled eggs but was impressed with the results of 30 minute hard cooked eggs.
Just as the cook explained how to do it..

So with all due respect to that dude's 11 minute eggs I hope they did not drip down his chin or drain away in the sink.

Oh, Chai. I could have looked it up, but the essence was not the time, but that the eggs were not continuously boiled.