How the fark do you properly hard boil eggs?!

[PatColo]

I typically eat 1-3 hard boiled eggs a day. So convenient yet nutritious. I boil up 6 at a time, dump the water, let them cool awhile, put 'em in the fridge where they wait their turn for consumption over the coming few days. Simple, right?

Well I've surely boiled up a few 1000 HBE's by now, and still can't figure out the recipe for that perfect HBE, where peeling the shell, it just peels off in big sheets, taking that "skin membrane" with it, leaving the HBE surface slippery & unblemished. And I'm getting tired of tossing out half the egg (white) I paid for, coz the shell & skin membrane have a death grip on the egg white.

Knowhatamean?

I start with fridge-cold SBE's, put them in the little electric hot water kettle I use (I'm living on the road ATM), submerge them under room-temp water, and turn on the heat. Takes around 5 mins for my little kettle to reach boiling when full & starting with room temp water. Then I let them go like that for... 15-20 mins from the time I turned the kettle on. Then dump water and let the eggs cool, at least 15 but often 30 or more minutes. I mostly just don't want them to "heat the fridge" costing me energy $! Then into the fridge as long as they're no more than 'warm'.

It's got to be somewhere in these simple steps, IE the SBE warm or cold to start, the starting water temp, certainly cooking time, cooling, etc which determines whether the HBE's give me pleasure or hassle, come peeling & eating time?! But every batch seems to turn out differently! Any wisdom out there on this? :|~

BTW these are 'brown' eggs I'm dealing with ATM, but I've puzzled over the same issue in the past, dealing with white eggs.

[Cebu_4_2]

I googled the proper way and that made things worse! My grandmother was a pro, me not so much. I used to think it was the factory farming issue but then when I got chickens had the same problem.

[Libertytree]

Three things I see...

1.take your eggs out of the frig 20 mins before you want to boil them.

2. Bring the water to a boil, then put them in.

3. After 15-20 mins, dump the hot water and replace with cold water. Or, have cold water waiting in a separate non heated vessel. The sudden shock of hot to cold I think helps the shells not stick to the egg. I've seen ice water used as well.

[monty]

I found similar instructions to,the method you describe inside an egg carton. I tried it and had a fair amount of success. The instructions were put the eggs in a pan of cold water from the faucet. Put the pan of eggs and water on the stove and bring to a boíl. I have forgotten the amount of time to boil the eggs but the last ones I did I boiled about 9 minutes and the shells and mebrane slipped right off. When the eggs have boiled the proper amount of time let them cool in the water. Do not imerse them in cold water to cool.

[Libertytree]

It's the pursuit of perfection that makes it worthwhile.

[Sparky]

I usually let the water get warm before submerging the eggs. Leave the eggs in for about 5 minutes from the time the water actually starts boiling.

As soon as they come out of the boiling water, run them under cold water. Then, crack the top of the egg, where there will be a little air pocket. Hold the egg top up under running cold water while you peel down from the cracked top. The running water will run into where you've begun peeling, and pull the shell and membrane away from the egg, which is what you want. You can then let them cool, and refrigerate in a covered container or zip-lock plastic bag.

Let me know if this works for you...

[vacuum]

There are 3 things / tricks to keep in mind:


Eggs must not be fresh (10+ days)
Don’t let them boil forever, and
After cooking, let the eggs rest in an ice-bath to “shock” them.



More info here:
http://www.momables.com/how-to-make-easy-to-peel-hard-boiled-eggs/

[Serpo]

This was part of my job once..................

Some batches of eggs are easier than others too peel.

Easy way to peel an egg is when its usually still somewhat warm and you lay it on its side and tap the whole way around with a spoon so it cracks the shell.

So the egg is cracked around its waist laying on its side.

Peel then at your pleasure.

This is very eggciting.

[MNeagle]

Agree on the eggs can't be too fresh, otherwise I've used this technique for years:


Secrets to a Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg

Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan. Cover with 1 inch of cold water. Cover pot and bring to boil. Remove pan from heat as soon as boil is reached. Let the eggs stand, covered, in the hot water about 15 minutes for large eggs (about 12 minutes for medium, about 18 for extra large). Cool immediately in an ice-water bath.

http://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/holidays/easter-egg-ideas

[woodman]

Vacuum got it right. The eggs will not peel well if they are fresh.

[Ares]

Three things I see...

1.take your eggs out of the frig 20 mins before you want to boil them.

2. Bring the water to a boil, then put them in.

3. After 15-20 mins, dump the hot water and replace with cold water. Or, have cold water waiting in a separate non heated vessel. The sudden shock of hot to cold I think helps the shells not stick to the egg. I've seen ice water used as well.

Make it even better and always easy to peel. Add ice (dump out hot water, add cold water, then with pan full of cold water add ice, let them sit 10-15 minutes.) when you do the cold water bath. My wife does that, eggs are a breeze to peel. Shell comes right off after cracking it.

[Serpo]

We used to steam them in a commercial set up...........12 to 15min.

Then under cold water as they will keep cooking and turn blackish.


Could try and peel them before you cook them.....hahahaha

[vacuum]

This might be what you're looking for, including the RV and all.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nId0VqfG_oI

[Ares]

This might be what you're looking for, including the RV and all.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nId0VqfG_oI

Yep that's exactly how my wife hard boils eggs. Been doing it for a couple years now.

[MNeagle]

Peeling right away seems to be key as well, not sticking them in the fridge.

[Shami-Amourae]

I learned how to cook hard-boiled eggs perfectly while in culinary school and in the culinary industry.

Here's how:

Put your eggs in a pot. Fill it with water so there is 1 inch of water just over the top of the eggs. Turn on the heat and bring to a boil. Once it is at a boil put on the lid and turn off the heat. Wait 15 minutes while the eggs continue to cook in the sealed remaining heat. After 15 minutes take the eggs out and put them on the counter with a rag/paper towel to absorb the moisture. Cool and serve.

This method has never failed me once.

[PatColo]

Thanks for all the good replies. Much to try on my next batch. Near-common thread seems to be the cold water shock for cooling. I've also tried cooling them under "tap water cold" but that's only as cold as the water in your pipes

Fun fact: if you got your HBE's mixed up with you SBE's, how can you tell them apart?

A: Spin them on the countertop. HBE's will spin like a top; SBE's will be lucky to wobble 2-3 revolutions. :)



This is very eggciting.

I agree, however I started this thread after reaching the point of sheer eggasperation! {0}

[Santa]

I used to have a surefire way of getting perfect hard boiled eggs. I'd wave my hands in the air and shout, "bring me my eggs, woman."

It won't work anymore, though. That ungrateful woman ran off with the divorce attorney. :(

[Shami-Amourae]

Sometimes in the kitchen we would need 100 hard boiled eggs on-the-fly (banquets or whatever) so we'd put the eggs in a full 400 perforated pan in an industrial steamer for 10 minutes.
http://www.grubbinwithgodfrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/perforated_hotel_pan.jpg

You can get the steamers for only $18,000
http://www.acitydiscount.com/pics/std/peachtrader/n46616.jpg

:)

That's the ULTIMATE way to do hard boiled eggs!

[hoarder]

I have tried all of these methods and they don't work up here. When I lived in Texas at 750' elevation it was easy. In Montana shells won't come off without tearing up the egg no matter how you do it.
I like to make pickled eggs. Up here there are many independent sources of free range local eggs that taste delicious and have orange colored yolks and brown shells. I've been told that ageing them helps so I tried leaving 3 dozen eggs in the crisper drawer of my propane fridge for 3 weeks. Same problem.

Maybe it's the elevation....?

On a side note, the best time of year (up north) to buy free range eggs is summer and fall when chickens are scratching for bugs instead of eating GMO chicken scratch which is mostly corn.

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

I use these things. I don't like the yolks so I just want the egg whites. I can dump 3 or 4 eggs into one of these and boil it. You gotta use non stick spray though to get the eggs out.

http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/As-Seen-On-TV-Eggies-Hard-Boiled-Egg-Cookers/0000000073763?utm_source=googleps&utm_medium=shopping%2Bsearch&utm_campaign=google%2Bproduct%20search&gslfah&gclid=CN3Z4ceu4rsCFcxAMgodRUgAig

[Libertytree]

I have tried all of these methods and they don't work up here. When I lived in Texas at 750' elevation it was easy. In Montana shells won't come off without tearing up the egg no matter how you do it.
I like to make pickled eggs. Up here there are many independent sources of free range local eggs that taste delicious and have orange colored yolks and brown shells. I've been told that ageing them helps so I tried leaving 3 dozen eggs in the crisper drawer of my propane fridge for 3 weeks. Same problem.

Maybe it's the elevation....?

On a side note, the best time of year (up north) to buy free range eggs is summer and fall when chickens are scratching for bugs instead of eating GMO chicken scratch which is mostly corn.

Try using a pressure cooker

Boiling the Eggs Add 1 cup of cold water to the pressure cooker and insert a steamer basket. Place 1 to 6 eggs in the basket and cover. Heat the pressure cooker over high heat until it reaches low pressure, then lower the heat to low and start timing. Cook the eggs 6 minutes for hard boiled, 5 minutes for medium boiled and 3 minutes for soft boiled. If cooking soft- or medium-boiled eggs, place the pressure cooker in the sink and run cold water over it until it unlocks, then move the eggs to the ice water. If cooking hard-boiled eggs, take the cooker off the burner and let the pressure dissipate on its own until the cover unlocks, then place the eggs in the ice water.


Cooling the Eggs Fill a large bowl full of ice and cover it with cold water. Transfer the eggs from the pressure cooker to the ice water and let them cool for the same amount of time as you cooked them to serve cold, or let them cool 1 minute to serve hot.

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/boil-eggs-altitude-38609.html

[gunDriller]

BTW these are 'brown' eggs I'm dealing with ATM, but I've puzzled over the same issue in the past, dealing with white eggs.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/racist1.gif.pagespeed.ce.4mB4Gyg8e3.gif

[PatColo]

haha, I knew something like that was coming! But this one's better,

http://i.imgur.com/M2l9M.gif


I cooked up a dozen eggs, 2 batches of 6, but I used the same recipe for both batches. My sole cooking instrument, a ~1 liter electric hot water kettle, only accommodates up to 6 leaving space to submerge them.

The youtube above says, go from fridge straight into boiling water. I've always found that this "shock" causes maybe 1 out of 5 or 10 SBEs to crack and leak egg white making a frothy mess. So I always start w/warm water and "boil 'em like frogs". Even if one of the SBEs is predisposed to cracking anyways, the slow transition from warm to hot water causes the outer-most white to gel/harden first, so that any opening crack is already sealed with the hardening white.

So I started with cold eggs into warm water for all dozen eggs. I used the "13 minutes" recipe in the YT above, but started the 13 minute clock beginning when I heard the water start hissing, meaning boil-point was ~1 minute off. This'll need tweaking coz the yolks wIere merely poached, IE more 'orange' than the outer-most yolk which was fully-cooked/yellow. 1 more minute, at least.

As to the "shock in an ice-water bath" conclusion, best I can really do there in my current situation is refrig-cold water, so that's what I did, after dumping the hot water. But it was still in that tight little 1L kettle, so the cold water becomes warm within seconds, coz the egg-to-water ratio in the confined space is so poor. It also sucked coz I needed to use my precious bottled drinking water, as that's the fridge-cold water I had available. I'll need to keep a bottle of non-potable tap water in a bottle in the fridge, just for cooling eggs!

Result: GREAT IMPROVEMENT. :) I could peel the eggs nearly unblemished; just a little sticky spot here/there. Only small issue was the unfinished yolks, and I already know the solution to that.

1 point goes to the GSUS brain trust! :D

[Serpo]

Its great you found out eggactly the best way ,running under the tap with cold water for a while is how they do it in commercial kitchens

[zap]

I just made 2 dozen eggs for a party I went to, I heard that if you prick the shell of the egg it peels easier. and thats what I did, before you put the egg in the water use a safety pin and make a hole in each egg, It supposedly makes it easier to peel. LOL same ol same ol>

[hoarder]

I just made 2 dozen eggs for a party I went to, I heard that if you prick the shell of the egg it peels easier. and thats what I did, before you put the egg in the water use a safety pin and make a hole in each egg, It supposedly makes it easier to peel. LOL same ol same ol>My mother did it that way all her life. I do it once in a while but never noticed any improvement.

Breakfast menu tomorrow morning: Fried eggs!

[PatColo]

Growing up in the '70s I recall we had an "egg cooker" which I imagine was bought new in the '60s.

Round thing (top view), held maybe 6 eggs in holder holes around its perimeter. In the lid, holding it upside down, you added water which went into a cup like area and had markings like a measuring cup, with different levels for how well cooked u wanted your eggs. So you'd pour in the water-- if u chose hard boiled, that might have been 2-4 ozs water? Going by memory here.... so that water would sit below the eggs, and get heated into steam. Put lid on, turn it on, and when it's done burning off the water, it'd make an audible click- actually the on/off switch switching off. Presto, eggs as u requested! :D I recall it was 5-10 mins, that might be off though, were talking memory of ~40 years ago! But as you can see, it STEAMED the eggs... would they cook faster that way? :|~

Oh yeah, in the center of the circle of eggs, there was a pin-like poker pointing up, so u could poke a hole in the shells b4 cooking. :)