Friday, April 10, 2009

The Perfect Hard Boiled Egg!

With the Easter Season here I thought this would be a good post.

  1. Buy your eggs a week in advance. Eggs that are a bit older are a LOT easier to peel. (fresh eggs lay flat in water, bad eggs float. Good peeling eggs don't lay perfectly flat, they tip up just a tad)
  2. To center you yolk lay the carton on its side the day before you boil them.
  3. Bring eggs to room temperature
  4. Place eggs in a sauce pan in a single layer
  5. Fill pot with cold tap water to a level about 1 in. above eggs
  6. Bring water to a boil
  7. Remove pot from heat and cover
  8. All eggs to sit in hot water, covered for 15 min (that gives you the lighter yellow, more dry yolk. To get the darker yellow more moist yolk they only need to sit for about 10 min)
  9. Immediately place the eggs into ice water. (this prevents that greenish ring from appearing on the outside of the yolk) I usually just pour out the hot water and run the cold water over them and throw in some ice cubes.
  10. Allow eggs to sit in the ice water until cool, then transfer to the refrigerator for at least 30 min.
To peel the eggs, the best place to crack them should be on the flatter end because the air pocket should be there. Running the egg under cold water while peeling can help as well.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. yup, it's the over cooking (especially actually boiling) eggs that cause the green ring ... so, quickly cooling them keep the yellows perfect ... much the same as flash cooling cooked green vegetables keep them bright.

    Love the tip about centering the yolks ... that's a new one for me ... gonna try it ... today!

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh, I forgot to mention this: when my Mom was ready to shell her hard cooked eggs, she'g put them in a jar filled with cold water. Then, she'd screw on the lid and shake vigorously. This more than cracked the shells, it crazed them and let the water fill in between the egg and the shell. The eggs slipped right out of the shells. I tend to lightly crack the shell, then roll it between counter (or sink) and palm, thus crazing the shell, then I let the egg sit in water for a few minutes ... works for me ... !

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whew! I was glad to see that I followed almost all of these directions for Keira's first egg coloring experience, and I am by no means a cooking expert. I must say that after reading, I am still confident that my egss are OK.

    ReplyDelete