by Sophie White

Created on: April 07, 2010

Eggs have been enjoyed since the beginning of human kind. Hard boiled eggs can be used in wide variety of tasty and nutritious ways. From a spinach salad, to deviled eggs, to an egg salad sandwich or a tasty breakfast, there are endless ways to enjoy this simple dish. Hard boiled eggs are easy to make, but just as easy to over or under cook, and of course you can’t tell until you’ve cracked the shell and see what’s going on inside. If the egg is undercooked, the yolk is still a little runny, would be classified as soft boiled. If you have over cooked the egg, the yolk is a very pale yellow, with a grayish green ring around the yolk.

The best way to start is to use local and/or organic eggs; you really can see and taste the difference quality product makes. Slightly older eggs work best, because fresh eggs are more difficult to peel. Take your pot and fill with water until the water line would be slightly above eggs, add a pinch of baking soda. The baking soda will make it easier to peel the eggs later on. Put the pot on high heat until water starts to boil, turn off the heat, keeping the pot on the element. Add in your eggs, it is best to use a spoon and carefully drop in your eggs. Don’t throw the eggs in, the shell could crack and then the egg could escape leaving you with a half poached and half boiled egg, not too tasty. Leave the pot covered on element for 10 minutes. Drain the water and add ice cold water until the eggs shell can be easily touched. An air bubble usually forms on the bottom end of the egg, lightly tap the egg on the bottom end and begin to peel away the shell. The egg is now a perfectly hard boiled and ready for any use.

Hard boiled eggs are so popular they have spurred the invention of many products. There is the classic egg timer, for perfectly timed soft or hard boiled eggs. The egg slicer cuts, holds the unique shape of an egg, while it cuts the egg into even slices. Lastly an egg cup is a small cup that is the perfect size for the egg making it easier to eat; this product is mostly used for soft boiled eggs eaten at breakfast.  

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