by Gordon Hamilton

Created on: December 28, 2008   Last Updated: December 16, 2011

It is often rather cruelly said of someone with what is perceived to be limited cooking ability that they couldn’t boil an egg. This tends to suggest that, among other things, boiling eggs is a very simple and straightforward procedure and that there is very little knowledge or culinary skill required. There is plenty which can go wrong when boiling eggs, however, and even cooks of modest ability can find their results verging on disaster from time to time, for any one of a number of reasons.

Eggs which are only a few days old will not cook as well, by boiling, as eggs which are at least four or five days old. This is more than worth bearing in mind. It is also important when considering boiling eggs to remove them from the refrigerator at least a couple of hours in advance. Allowing eggs to reach room temperature prior to boiling them significantly reduces the chances of the eggs cracking and perhaps effectively spoiling in the water.

For best results, and to further reduce the risk of the eggs cracking, the eggs should be added to a pot of cold water. The pot should be deep enough to allow the water to comfortably cover all the eggs but small enough to limit the space which the eggs have to roll around during cooking and increase the likelihood of cracks. The pot should be put on to a high heat only until the water just begins to boil. The heat should at this point be reduced to achieve a gentle simmer, which should be maintained for the duration of the cooking time.

The purpose for which boiled eggs are to be used, as well as the preferences of those eating them, will determine for how long an egg should be boiled. Timing is crucial and using an electronic, or even sand and glass, egg timer eliminates the risk of losing track of time or failing to watch it closely enough. A soft boiled egg requires three to five minutes simmering, while six or seven minutes will cook the egg completely and constitute hard boiled.

When an egg is removed from the heat and even the water, it will continue to cook until it is shelled and cooled. Even when a hard boiled egg is to be eaten cold, it still has to be manually cooled to prevent overcooking and the unattractive blue/black coloring around the yolk. The best way to peel a hard boiled egg is to firstly run the pot containing the egg under running cold water until the egg is cool enough to hold. The shell should then be carefully cracked by gently knocking it all around on a hard surface. The shell should be peeled away under a trickle of running cold water before the peeled eggs are submerged in cold water for a couple of minutes to cool completely.

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