There is much to be said for failure. It is more interesting than success.
~Max Beerbohm, Mainly on the Air, 1946
Our new house came with three lovely chickens. I had the idea of making pesto deviled eggs earlier this week (after an inspiring snack at the Nordstrom holiday shopping event). Unfortunately, I appear to really suck at making hard boiled eggs.
How can a seemingly simple task be so bizarrely confounding?
The standard technique – placing eggs in a pot of boiling water, removing the pot from the heat, and letting the eggs cook for 12-14 minutes – has failed me twice! I hate over-cooked, green yolks, so I cooked them the first time for 12 minutes. The eggs were hard to peel and the yolks were only half-cooked. The next time I tried, I left the eggs in the water for 15 minutes. The results were no better, as the above picture demonstrates.
I made the pesto filling with the yolks, a cup of basil leaves, a few tablespoons of walnuts, a couple shavings of Parmesan, and a spoonful of Veganaise anyway. It was super rich and worked great as sauce for pasta and veggies. All in all a happy failure.
I still can’t figure out what’s wrong with my hard-boiled egg cooking technique, though. Is there a difference between home-grown eggs and commercial eggs that would account for the difference? Do I simply need to cook them even longer?
Good thing the ladies keep laying more eggs. I have a feeling I will be able to keep experimenting until I have the technique down pat.
Fresh eggs stick more than ‘aged’ eggs. Boil your oldest eggs rather than just-gathered ones. http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/05/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs.html
Fresh eggs are icky to peel. I typically keep eggs I buy for a week or two before using them if I want to boil them.
Fresh eggs are horrible for hard boiling, at least if you want them to look pretty. If you are just chopping them up then it doesn’t matter but they are super hard to peel. Older eggs are definitely better for deviled eggs. I usually put my eggs in the pan and cover with water. Bring them to a simmer and let them sit in there simmering for 5 minutes. Pull them off the heat, cover and sit for 10 min then plunge into an ice bath. Usually works out pretty well. So cool that you guys have chickens, if you aren’t trying to make deviled eggs with them, fresh eggs are so good!!
Wow! Totally interesting! Thanks 🙂
The eggs we buy at the store are typically 30 days old already. If I have to let our chicken eggs age even longer than that, I’m going to have to set some aside for quite a while before boiling them…
“How to boil farm fresh eggs” seems to have a number of people claiming success. Gives you something to try while you sit out your 45 day wait? 🙂
Jamie the pedant chiming in here.
Sound advice on boiling older vs fresher eggs, but that’s not your main problem here. There are two key components to accurately boiling eggs:
1) Amount of Water
2) The temperature at which you begin to cook.
Amount of water: Put only enough water in the pot to just cover the tops of the eggs. No more and certainly no less.
Temperature: Ideally, put the eggs in water that is the same temperature as the eggs (although cold tap water and eggs from the fridge are close enough as doesn’t matter). After you have placed the eggs in the water, THEN turn on the flame.
The idea is that you want to heat the eggs and the water at a predictable rate. Using this technique on the large burner on your stove (which I know well!) and with a 9 in. sauce pan, you will find that 4 eggs will be perfectly hard boiled at 10 min. after the water begins boil, softboiled at 2.5 min after the water begins to boil.
Accuracy is important here – start the clock as soon as you have large bubbles of steam emanating from the majority of the bottom surface of the pan, not the wimpy little ones that appear 45 seconds before the actual boil. Once the water begins to boil, you can reduce heat significantly to keep it at a slow boil. (The water will be 100C at any rate, but you don’t want to bounce the eggs around and break shells in roiling water.)
At the end of the cooking time, douse the eggs in cold water to stop additional cooking. If you’re making soft boiled eggs just a splash will do, as you want hot eggs for breakfast. If hard boiling, I like to put ’em in an ice bath.
So you see Cary, boiling eggs isn’t that simple after all.
I miss the girls and fresh eggs – we’re not going to be able to build the new coop before spring.
Oh, and a week is plenty old for hard boiling.
I had no idea… crazy!
Wait until they float, boil on gentle boil.
Don’t wait until they float. Throw them out if they float! Waiting a week is long enough, though I find the brown ones peel better than the green ones for some reason. I ice them after they’re done boiling. -Joni
Kat got me one of those plastic things that changes color and now I make soft boiled eggs perfect every time. I never had a problem with hard boiled if I start w cold water, bring to a rolling boil then take them off the heat and let them sit for 12 mins.
If the yokes are too runny for your needs, then they need more heat. Either cook them longer or keep the pot on the stove at low while cooking. The reason why they may need more time to cook is that they have more mass (having not dried out) and may be larger than your store bought ones. To reduce the green tinge on the surface of the yoke, plunge the cooked eggs into cold water when done cooking. The green color comes from sulfur gasses being released by the yoke that can’t pass through the solid whites. Quickly cooling the yoke reduces the release of the gasses.
I should have mentioned that I did put them in an ice bath at the end of the cooking time. They definitely weren’t green, but they were still undercooked! Like Vineeth said, I have lots of time to review the the advice and try again.
Add a little white vinegar to the water before you boil them. It makes them easier to peel.
I’ll agree with others fresh eggs are tough to peel. Supposedly putting some white vinegar in the water will make it easier, but may also impart taste. I haven’t tried it.
My typical cooking for perfect hard boiled eggs is starting in cold water (filled 1″ above eggs.) Bring to boil (fish eye is fine for me) and then remove from heat for 12 minutes. Then I rinse with cold water for about 30 seconds and place in bowl and then straight into the fridge. No sulfur yolks. Not sure if it matters but I do them in a stainless sauce pan that has an aluminum core. HTH
I have used this method a number of times, and it’s foolproof! It even calls for fresh eggs! If you don’t want to watch the video it’s done in a few simple steps.
-Bring about a 1/2 of water to a boil
-insert steam rack and place at least 4 eggs
-lower heat to simmer
-steam for 12min
-immediately move to ice bath and let chill for 5min
-peel and enjoy!
https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A86.J7oA441UOUAAHQwPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsOXB2YTRjBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2dxMQR2dGlkAw–?p=hard+steamed+eggs&tnr=21&vid=5DB4644F315E8C52FBC45DB4644F315E8C52FBC4&l=146&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DUN.607987942945522255%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxUHKpHek2E8&sigr=11b0ait98&tt=b&tit=Hard-Cooked+Heaven-Food+Network&sigt=10vdhinvs&back=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dhard%2Bsteamed%2Beggs%26ei%3DUTF-8%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla&sigb=12tepc192&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001