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The Hard Truth About Boiled Eggs (2014)

244 points by MrJagil 11y ago

mironathetin 11y ago
Very funny and useful. Seems that the scientific method can and should be applied to nearly everything successfully :o).
- treehau5 11y ago
  You would very much enjoy the book, "The Science of Good Cooking" by the same folks who do the show "Americas Test Kitchen"
rickdale 11y ago
I own a hard boil egg maker. Takes less than 20 minutes to make 7 perfect hard boiled eggs. If I am patient enough to wait another 20 minutes after that the eggs peel perfectly and are still warm and delicious. http://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-F23070-Cooker-Indicator-capacity/dp/B00005KIRS http://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-F23070-Cooker-Indicator-capacity...
- kobayashi 11y ago
  Contraptions that are single-purpose and do their job well are defensible, IMHO, yet I still dislike the space and specialized cleaning requirements of devices like this.
  - ars 11y ago
    Try this then: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LTIYN2 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LTIYN2 toaster and egg maker in one, and it can synchronize them.
    - maxerickson 11y ago
      It has the same problem, along with not easily being able to replace 1/2 of it.
  - logfromblammo 11y ago
    My household hard-cooks all of our eggs in a rice cooker with a steamer tray insert (Zojirushi NHS-10). The cooking time is set by the amount of water you add. We mainly err on the side of overcooked (more water), because nobody likes soft yolks. The rice cooker and convection/toaster oven have been the two most universally useful appliances in our kitchen, and they are both still operational after an average of 15 years in service. Other gadgets have come and gone, and they remain. They have even outlasted four microwave ovens, three slow-cookers, and one full-sized range-top oven. A rice cooker is useful enough in every home kitchen that I consider it a dire omission that they didn't even get a mention in the article. Ours can cook a dozen eggs in 15 minutes, most of that time can be spent doing something else, and there's no boiling water to pour out.
    - ctb_mg 11y ago
      Just to add, Zojirushi are top of the line rice cookers and I would expect that they outlast most other appliances.
- deleted 11y ago
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- ctrijueque 11y ago
  I used to have one of those, but a few months ago I switched to the pressure cooker method (electric one, the [Instan Pot][1]): - cook the eggs 6 minutes on low pressure. - cool down (10 minutes). - shock the eggs with iced water. I know what the article says but in my experience pressure cooked eggs are much, much easy to peel. [1]: http://instantpot.com/ http://instantpot.com/
- jsankey 11y ago
  It takes less time to make 7 (or 3, or 12) perfect boiled eggs in a saucepan, it's trivial to do and to clean! I note your cooker also poaches eggs, though, which is much trickier in a pan (unless you have your own chooks, or a similarly fresh source of eggs).
  - lfowles 11y ago
    Does it take less time? I have a similar cooker and it uses ~1 cup of water for completely hard boiled eggs (total capacity 10 eggs[0]). The cooker rings a bell when the water has completely boiled off, which is closer to 10 minutes than 20 minutes for this model. I think total capacity is 10 eggs. Now, in a saucepan the water doesn't have to boil off completely, but you also have significantly more water. That isn't to say I use this unitasker all the time, I usually don't remember to have eggs around often enough! [0]: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61jBthbQW6L._SX425_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61jBthbQW6L._SX425_.jp...
- kqr2 11y ago
  I have a similar egg maker. I like the fact that it is very water and energy efficient. It's also interesting that as you boil more eggs, it requires less water.
  - Symbiote 11y ago
    Assuming it's 1kg of plastic, manufacturing it cost about 180 litres of water and 80MJ of energy. I can bring 12 pans of water to boil with that energy, and have lots of water to spare.
optymizer 11y ago
II am a big fan of soft-boiled eggs and I've always thought this was common knowledge since my mom taught me how to prepare them when I was young. My recipe: 1. Boil water 2. Place eggs in boiling water 3. Cook eggs for 5 minutes 4. Place pot with eggs in the sink and let cold water run to replace the hot water, don't let the water get warm in the pot. 5. Wait for eggs to cool for a few minutes 6. Peel eggs easily now. Total time: about 15 minutes
- 2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
  I had been experimenting with eggs when this article first came out trying to recreate the results. A found no difference between bringing eggs to the boil and dropping them in boiling water. I did find a difference between running cold water into the pot and dropping the eggs in cold water. Putting the eggs straight into cold water gave me rounder eggs that were easier to peel.
  - optymizer 11y ago
    Well, the reason to drop them in boiling water is to control the softness on the inside, because you have a consistent starting point at 100C, then you can keep the temperature at 100C and time 5 minutes. If you use cold water, the time for the water to get to 100C is going to be dependent on the stove and the flame that comes out of the burner, so when the water gets to 100C, in some cases the eggs will be half-ready, in some cases 1/3 ready, so it's more difficult to cook the eggs perfectly. Obviously, if you are always using the same stove and the same flame, you will eventually know how long it takes you to cook the eggs, but then when you switch stoves, you have to re-learn this. For me, dropping the eggs in boiling water is a little easier. Finally, yes, cold water is used to make the eggs easier to peel.
- jmnicolas 11y ago
  It will be less wasteful and you'll get better results by placing your eggs in some water with ice cubes. 5 minutes appears low, but until reading this article I was starting my eggs in cold water so I don't have any reference.
- 11y ago
a_c 11y ago
Of all the egg tutorials, none of them address the amount of water they used in boiling the egg. It is hardly convincing that the amount of boiling water won't affect the final product. The temperature of water might change once the egg is dropped in depending how large the pool is. Would love to see a comparison of using different pool size
- tr352 11y ago
  That, and the temperature of the egg itself. Did it come from the refrigerator or is it at room temperature? Furthermore, not every egg has the same size or weight.
  - bwohlergo 11y ago
    the temperature has been addressed in that article.
    - tr352 11y ago
      True but I am European and therefore, as mentioned in the article, often store my eggs at room temperature. The hardness of a cooked egg is a function of the size and/or weight of the egg, the cooking time and the temperature of the egg.
- bwohlergo 11y ago
  his advise is to put the eggs into a steamer... the quantity of water shouldn't make a difference in that case.
AceJohnny2 11y ago
Tangentially, I recently bought Kenji's new book [1], and my friends and I have been having tremendous fun reading through and trying out the recipes therein. Kenji's empirical approach and attention to the science behind cooking (not to mention sassy writing) really appeals to our inner geeks. http://www.amazon.com/The-Food-Lab-Cooking-Through/dp/0393081087 http://www.amazon.com/The-Food-Lab-Cooking-Through/dp/039308...
- dlib 11y ago
  Got this book as well, it's fun to read through and I can impress friends with simple yet tasty recipes. Bought it mostly because I'm a huge fan of seriouseats and Kenji's posts especially, so I try to show my support.
- ThePhysicist 11y ago
  I really hope that the book uses metric units. I recently read "The Science of Good Cooking", which was interesting but unfortunately used US units throughout, which makes it quite unscientific in my opinion. "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee is another great book about the chemistry of cooking, and I especially like it since it doesn't try hard to be hip or cool as opposed to some other books about cooking chemistry I could name.
  - jghn 11y ago
    I don't have it in front of me but he typically gives us volume and also grams for measurement. That said I fail to see why semantic sugar like units would really skew your opinion here, at the end of the day his book is aimed at a home cook. It's not modernist cuisine
    - ThePhysicist 11y ago
      Yes of course, but if you are used to metric units it's pretty hard to develop a good intuition around pounds, cups, inches and ounces, and I find intuition and the ability to clearly visualize proportions pretty important when cooking.
adamconroy 11y ago
Strange. Maybe I don't do it that often, but I don't recall having much trouble peeling hard boiled eggs. My method is to boil them for desired time, run cold water over them for a bit, then drop them gently on the bench probably 3-5 times per egg so that the shell is consistently shattered, then peel. Maybe the problem is that I can't get fresh eggs.
- adamconroy 11y ago
  On the other hand, getting a perfect soft boiled egg so that the whites are cooked but the yolk is completely runny is something I struggle with. I probably get about 1 in 3 perfect. I use a timer of course, but then the size of the egg seems matter and goodness knows what else.
  - roel_v 11y ago
    There are various apps that let you calculate optimal cooking times depending on egg size, initial temperature, etc. Works quite well in my experience.
  - 4ad 11y ago
    I've found that steaming them makes this much more consistent: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/7279-soft-cooked-eggs https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/7279-soft-cooked... Sorry for the paywall (I hate that!), there's an official youtube video you can watch for free, but I can't find it now. (Youtube history doesn't have search!)
geomark 11y ago
What he says about the age of the egg is contrary to my experience. I usually get fresh eggs from the farmers market and they peel easier than the store bought eggs which aren't as fresh. Maybe it's the fact that the eggs here aren't washed - they can be kept at room temperature quite a long time, no refrigeration needed.
- Jedd 11y ago
  The washing is an important and fascinating distinction. I'm in Australia, and as I understand it the unwashed egg is the default in most parts of the world (certainly here and in the UK, and I think in most of the EU). In the US the default is a washed product. But (!) this is why the default in the US is to have eggs refrigerated from soon after they leave the farm - and they need to remain refrigerated. IIRC this is because eggs that come from ~3C back to room temperature (~21C) will condense, and on washed eggs this massively increases the risk of pathogens penetrating the eggs. On non-washed eggs, this is less of a concern - but here we still recommend to not relocate eggs from the fridge to room temperature unless we're about to eat them. The membrane, though, will prevent spoilage of eggs that haven't been washed (or refrigerated) for weeks, if not months, if kept at a reasonable room temperature. (I qualify reasonable as here in AU room temperature in summer can often reach 35C.)
  - geomark 11y ago
    I am originally from the U.S. and when I came to Thailand I was initially taken aback by the sight of eggs being left out for days or weeks at a time. But they don't spoil. I later learned about the washing affect. Also, it's predominately brown eggs over here. Not sure if that makes a difference. At least as far as appearances go, unwashed brown eggs don't look as dirty as unwashed white eggs.
pedalpete 11y ago
I once did a day cooking class with Herve This (the Godfather of Molecular Gastronomy) and he talked of cooking eggs in a 'boiled style' in an oven on low heat. His comment was that the oven style at low heat allowed a restaurant to cook a large quantity of eggs and have a consistent product which would be good over the course of a few hours.
bash-j 11y ago
Big fan of Kenji's food lab work. I like his trial and error methods of finding the facts. From him I've learned to steam my eggs, bash and brine my chicken, and the right way to cook a steak, not that I eat much red meat anymore - too expensive!.
kijin 11y ago
I've been using this method [1] successfully for several months now. Instead of cracking the shell and then peeling under water, you take both steps at the same time by cracking the shell in the water! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWISKfgqZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWISKfgqZ0
mkesper 11y ago
Be careful with statistics: In this experiment, 3000 eggs were boiled, showing a difference of 10% versus 12% cracked eggs with/without pricking before cooking. Statistically, this does not have _any significance_ at all, though: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.wdr.de%2Ffernsehen%2Fwissen%2Fquarks%2Fsendungen%2Fei132.html&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr... (Sorry, that translation is hilarious).
- tokenadult 11y ago
  From the article: "Here's the truth: there is no 100% fool-proof method, and anybody who tells you different is selling something. And I do believe I've tried them all, many, many times over. The number of eggs I've boiled over the last several years in carefully controlled circumstances numbers well into the thousands, but despite that, the best boiled egg I cooked this year is no better than the best boiled egg I cooked twelve years ago in that Beacon Hill kitchen."
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  On the other hand, if you actually bother to do the math, using the normal approximation you get that a 95% confidence interval around p=0.1 with n=3000 has an upper bound of 0.111, which is well-separated from p'=0.12. (in fairness, the confidence intervals do overlap each other)
zwily 11y ago
I eat a lot of boiled eggs, and this is what I've been using for the past 6 months: Nordic Ware Microwave Egg Boiler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007M2BN0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007M2BN0 Works surprisingly well, consistent, etc. it basically steams them.
ryandamm 11y ago
Kenji is awesome, and probably the best reason to read seriouseats. But for anyone who enjoys food science, you really have to start with Harold McGee's classic "On Food and Cooking": http://smile.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446716055&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking http://smile.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp... (Sorry for the enormous URL.) Also, I binge-listen to Dave Arnold's podcast, "Cooking Issues" on Heritage Radio network. A treasure trove of food science facts, going well beyond eggs: sous vide meat, hydrocolloids, liquid nitrogen cocktails, etc. http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/cooking-issues/ http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/cooking-issues/ (You really have to give the show a chance, though -- it's very conversational, and less... polished than your typical show.) Also, anyone interested in food science should really consider an iSi whipper for booze infusion and other experimentation. No really, please do it, your life will be better (or at least boozier): http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=4463.html http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=4463.html (Arnold has progressed the technique a lot since then, but this primer is pretty good nonetheless. The FCI blog is basically dead; the podcast and Twitter are his current outlets.) But yeah, I screw around in the kitchen a lot (though cook less useful food than my wife does). Pressure cooker, weird enzymes, hydrocolloids... but the iSi whipper booze-infusion technique is my all-time favorite kitchen hack. You can drink toasted hazelnut bourbon in a Manhattan like, six minutes from now! (I hope it's nighttime when you read this.) Four minutes to microwave toast the nuts, plus two minutes to nitrous-infuse them. You might want to chop them in between and filter through a coffee filter after. Sorry, my nerd is showing. I hate eggs, especially boiled eggs, but this post hit a fun nerve for me.
- deleted 11y ago
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- bambax 11y ago
  On Food and Cooking is a great book (and so much cheaper than Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine -- although there's a "light" version of this which is quite good). Never heard about the iSi infusion technique before now, but am going to try it straight away! Thanks! ;-)
  - 11y ago
gadders 11y ago
I would just say that for people that love eating eggs, if you have the space get a couple of chickens. They are about as hard to look after as rabbits, and once you have proper, fresh eggs you won't go back to store-bought.
- Jedd 11y ago
  {much nodding} They're also a great way of recycling your green waste. Quail are meant to be comparably fun & easy to keep too, but no first hand experience on that front.
  - gadders 11y ago
    Our neighbour had quail. They're cute, but very flighty compared to chickens.
- MC7447a 11y ago
  > once you have proper, fresh eggs you won't go back to store-bought. Placebo http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-ca... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100792.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06...
  - treehau5 11y ago
    They don't "taste" better on their own, but the fact remains that fresh yolk is firmer. Firmer yolks yield better results in some recipes, thus creating a better product, and tasting better. Also, texture wise, fresh eggs are better. Taste involves all the senses.
  - deleted 11y ago
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  - Spooky23 11y ago
    Not really. Cage free vs. caged or organic corn vs. non-organic corn is a feel good thing. It all depends on what they eat. Both articles actually say this, but bury it for some reason. Hens in a barnyard eating high quality feed supplemented by insects, etc have a different flavor and texture than hens just fed feed. "Eggland's best" taste different because they are supplemented with flax. Similar phenomena exists with beef and pork. Grass fed beef tastes different due to more Omega-3 in grass. Danish pork tastes a little different because the pigs eat fish.
PepeGomez 11y ago
>As you can see, not one of them is a perfect hard-cooked egg: the eggs go directly from having slightly translucent centers to having rubbery whites. This happens when you cut them in half when they're still hot. The trick is to let them sit in the water until it cools down after cooking, or at least don't cut them until they cool down considerably.
suprjami 11y ago
Damn, I read this article a couple of weeks ago when making my own eggs. Little did I know there was so much delicious HN karma to be had. I'll just submit every site I visit in future.
Sealy 11y ago
>But of course, there's still a lot of eggsplaining to do. Upvoting this share just because of this pun!
jschwartzi 11y ago
I have a Betty Crocker cookbook from the sixties that gives exactly the same cooking advice, right down to time, boiling start, and shocking in ice water.
jerf 11y ago
If the pressure cooker is inferior to boiling water, I wonder if that means the optimal temperature is actually below boiling. Perhaps a sous vide setup could be even better. Be a fun experiment for someone to run. It also occurs to me that there is significant evidence of numerous "cooking myths" that lasted for decades or centuries before falling to the first person to finally put them to the test. Seems like fertile ground for some interesting high school science projects that could get some interesting results.
- mabermoske 11y ago
  This is sort of the sous vide experiment. https://youtu.be/vA8YYexlgNs https://youtu.be/vA8YYexlgNs A co-worker sent me that a while back, said it was from the class HarvardX: SPU27x Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science Not so much about hard boiled, but cooking a yolk from raw to hard.
- gvb 11y ago
  Optimum temperature from TFA: Egg white: * At 180 degrees: The main protein in egg whites—ovalbumen—will cross-link and solidify, giving you a totally firm egg white (see the whites of the 7 and 9 minute eggs). Egg yolks, on the other hand, follow a different set of temperatures: * At 145 degrees: They begin to thicken and set up. * At 158 degrees: They become totally firm, but are still bright orange and shiny. ---- A sous vide setup might work, but it probably isn't worth the effort for eggs. You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees. TBD is whether the 145 degree sous vide temperature hurts peel-ability (likely) and how long to cook the egg to finish the whites properly without overcooking the yoke.
  - jerf 11y ago
    "You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees." I was unclear about what I was thinking. I was thinking using the sous vide hardware to prep water at 200F or 190F and try boiling in that, since trying to maintain that temperature by hand is very hard, or at least, very labor intensive. But my failure to communicate that well produced another interesting strategy from you. And I have to admit I'm more searching for perfection in the abstract sense than interested in changing how I cook them. If perfect turns out to be "individually microwave the egg for 6 seconds, then cook in sous vide bath at 185F for six minutes, then boil for 3 more, then dump in ice bath immediately"... yeah, I'm not going to do that. But I'm intellectually curious.
peterwwillis 11y ago
Actually, the easiest way to peel eggs is with a spoon. I use this method on new eggs, old eggs, cold eggs, hot eggs, soft-boiled, medium-boiled and hard-boiled. As long as you push the spoon against the inside of the shell only and move slowly, you can get the whole thing in about 30-60 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV9ytMg_fi4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV9ytMg_fi4
mikekchar 11y ago
There is one method he didn't mention. Put the egg in a pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and cover. Wait 10 minutes. Shock cool immediately under running water. I only boil eggs now and again, but I have a 100% success rate on peeling with this method. I also don't do anything special while peeling. Just crack the shell any old way and peel it. Never once had a marred surface. Never once had dimples in the eggs (probably the shock cooling, as he suggested). Some variables: Gas stove on medium high heat. At sea level (well, technically 4 meters above sea level...). Very fresh eggs (probably only 2-3 days on average). Eggs started at room temperature (although exactly once I started with a cold egg with no perceived difference). I'd be interested to see if anyone else has used this technique.
- ska 11y ago
  I've used this method many, times (a few hundred, say) and it works fairly well, but definitely not 100% success on peeling. Also some variability on yolk consistency.
- eranki 11y ago
  I used to do it this way until I read this article a while back -- the hot start method gives me much easier-to-peel eggs than the cold start used to. I start with my eggs from the fridge and usually toward the end of their lifecycle though.
- samstave 11y ago
  This is the best egg toaster, I have this and love it: http://www.amazon.com/West-Bend-TEM500W-Muffin-Toaster/dp/B008YNFB3Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446747309&sr=8-1&keywords=toast+and+egg+toaster http://www.amazon.com/West-Bend-TEM500W-Muffin-Toaster/dp/B0...
ThrustVectoring 11y ago
I'm lazy to a fault, and I cook eggs by cracking them into a bowl of water and nuking it in the microwave until done. No peeling, no cleaning up the pot, much less waiting.

244 points by MrJagil 11y ago

Very funny and useful. Seems that the scientific method can and should be applied to nearly everything successfully :o).

treehau5 11y ago
You would very much enjoy the book, "The Science of Good Cooking" by the same folks who do the show "Americas Test Kitchen"

rickdale 11y ago

I own a hard boil egg maker. Takes less than 20 minutes to make 7 perfect hard boiled eggs. If I am patient enough to wait another 20 minutes after that the eggs peel perfectly and are still warm and delicious. http://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-F23070-Cooker-Indicator-capacity/dp/B00005KIRS http://www.amazon.com/KRUPS-F23070-Cooker-Indicator-capacity...

kobayashi 11y ago
Contraptions that are single-purpose and do their job well are defensible, IMHO, yet I still dislike the space and specialized cleaning requirements of devices like this.
- ars 11y ago
  Try this then: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LTIYN2 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008LTIYN2 toaster and egg maker in one, and it can synchronize them.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    It has the same problem, along with not easily being able to replace 1/2 of it.
- logfromblammo 11y ago
  My household hard-cooks all of our eggs in a rice cooker with a steamer tray insert (Zojirushi NHS-10). The cooking time is set by the amount of water you add. We mainly err on the side of overcooked (more water), because nobody likes soft yolks. The rice cooker and convection/toaster oven have been the two most universally useful appliances in our kitchen, and they are both still operational after an average of 15 years in service. Other gadgets have come and gone, and they remain. They have even outlasted four microwave ovens, three slow-cookers, and one full-sized range-top oven. A rice cooker is useful enough in every home kitchen that I consider it a dire omission that they didn't even get a mention in the article. Ours can cook a dozen eggs in 15 minutes, most of that time can be spent doing something else, and there's no boiling water to pour out.
  - ctb_mg 11y ago
    Just to add, Zojirushi are top of the line rice cookers and I would expect that they outlast most other appliances.
deleted 11y ago
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ctrijueque 11y ago
I used to have one of those, but a few months ago I switched to the pressure cooker method (electric one, the [Instan Pot][1]): - cook the eggs 6 minutes on low pressure. - cool down (10 minutes). - shock the eggs with iced water. I know what the article says but in my experience pressure cooked eggs are much, much easy to peel. [1]: http://instantpot.com/ http://instantpot.com/
jsankey 11y ago
It takes less time to make 7 (or 3, or 12) perfect boiled eggs in a saucepan, it's trivial to do and to clean! I note your cooker also poaches eggs, though, which is much trickier in a pan (unless you have your own chooks, or a similarly fresh source of eggs).
- lfowles 11y ago
  Does it take less time? I have a similar cooker and it uses ~1 cup of water for completely hard boiled eggs (total capacity 10 eggs[0]). The cooker rings a bell when the water has completely boiled off, which is closer to 10 minutes than 20 minutes for this model. I think total capacity is 10 eggs. Now, in a saucepan the water doesn't have to boil off completely, but you also have significantly more water. That isn't to say I use this unitasker all the time, I usually don't remember to have eggs around often enough! [0]: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61jBthbQW6L._SX425_.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61jBthbQW6L._SX425_.jp...
kqr2 11y ago
I have a similar egg maker. I like the fact that it is very water and energy efficient. It's also interesting that as you boil more eggs, it requires less water.
- Symbiote 11y ago
  Assuming it's 1kg of plastic, manufacturing it cost about 180 litres of water and 80MJ of energy. I can bring 12 pans of water to boil with that energy, and have lots of water to spare.

optymizer 11y ago

II am a big fan of soft-boiled eggs and I've always thought this was common knowledge since my mom taught me how to prepare them when I was young. My recipe: 1. Boil water 2. Place eggs in boiling water 3. Cook eggs for 5 minutes 4. Place pot with eggs in the sink and let cold water run to replace the hot water, don't let the water get warm in the pot. 5. Wait for eggs to cool for a few minutes 6. Peel eggs easily now. Total time: about 15 minutes

2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
I had been experimenting with eggs when this article first came out trying to recreate the results. A found no difference between bringing eggs to the boil and dropping them in boiling water. I did find a difference between running cold water into the pot and dropping the eggs in cold water. Putting the eggs straight into cold water gave me rounder eggs that were easier to peel.
- optymizer 11y ago
  Well, the reason to drop them in boiling water is to control the softness on the inside, because you have a consistent starting point at 100C, then you can keep the temperature at 100C and time 5 minutes. If you use cold water, the time for the water to get to 100C is going to be dependent on the stove and the flame that comes out of the burner, so when the water gets to 100C, in some cases the eggs will be half-ready, in some cases 1/3 ready, so it's more difficult to cook the eggs perfectly. Obviously, if you are always using the same stove and the same flame, you will eventually know how long it takes you to cook the eggs, but then when you switch stoves, you have to re-learn this. For me, dropping the eggs in boiling water is a little easier. Finally, yes, cold water is used to make the eggs easier to peel.
jmnicolas 11y ago
It will be less wasteful and you'll get better results by placing your eggs in some water with ice cubes. 5 minutes appears low, but until reading this article I was starting my eggs in cold water so I don't have any reference.
11y ago

a_c 11y ago

Of all the egg tutorials, none of them address the amount of water they used in boiling the egg. It is hardly convincing that the amount of boiling water won't affect the final product. The temperature of water might change once the egg is dropped in depending how large the pool is. Would love to see a comparison of using different pool size

tr352 11y ago
That, and the temperature of the egg itself. Did it come from the refrigerator or is it at room temperature? Furthermore, not every egg has the same size or weight.
- bwohlergo 11y ago
  the temperature has been addressed in that article.
  - tr352 11y ago
    True but I am European and therefore, as mentioned in the article, often store my eggs at room temperature. The hardness of a cooked egg is a function of the size and/or weight of the egg, the cooking time and the temperature of the egg.
bwohlergo 11y ago
his advise is to put the eggs into a steamer... the quantity of water shouldn't make a difference in that case.

AceJohnny2 11y ago

Tangentially, I recently bought Kenji's new book [1], and my friends and I have been having tremendous fun reading through and trying out the recipes therein. Kenji's empirical approach and attention to the science behind cooking (not to mention sassy writing) really appeals to our inner geeks. http://www.amazon.com/The-Food-Lab-Cooking-Through/dp/0393081087 http://www.amazon.com/The-Food-Lab-Cooking-Through/dp/039308...

dlib 11y ago
Got this book as well, it's fun to read through and I can impress friends with simple yet tasty recipes. Bought it mostly because I'm a huge fan of seriouseats and Kenji's posts especially, so I try to show my support.
ThePhysicist 11y ago
I really hope that the book uses metric units. I recently read "The Science of Good Cooking", which was interesting but unfortunately used US units throughout, which makes it quite unscientific in my opinion. "On Food and Cooking" by Harold McGee is another great book about the chemistry of cooking, and I especially like it since it doesn't try hard to be hip or cool as opposed to some other books about cooking chemistry I could name.
- jghn 11y ago
  I don't have it in front of me but he typically gives us volume and also grams for measurement. That said I fail to see why semantic sugar like units would really skew your opinion here, at the end of the day his book is aimed at a home cook. It's not modernist cuisine
  - ThePhysicist 11y ago
    Yes of course, but if you are used to metric units it's pretty hard to develop a good intuition around pounds, cups, inches and ounces, and I find intuition and the ability to clearly visualize proportions pretty important when cooking.

adamconroy 11y ago

Strange. Maybe I don't do it that often, but I don't recall having much trouble peeling hard boiled eggs. My method is to boil them for desired time, run cold water over them for a bit, then drop them gently on the bench probably 3-5 times per egg so that the shell is consistently shattered, then peel. Maybe the problem is that I can't get fresh eggs.

adamconroy 11y ago
On the other hand, getting a perfect soft boiled egg so that the whites are cooked but the yolk is completely runny is something I struggle with. I probably get about 1 in 3 perfect. I use a timer of course, but then the size of the egg seems matter and goodness knows what else.
- roel_v 11y ago
  There are various apps that let you calculate optimal cooking times depending on egg size, initial temperature, etc. Works quite well in my experience.
- 4ad 11y ago
  I've found that steaming them makes this much more consistent: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/7279-soft-cooked-eggs https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/7279-soft-cooked... Sorry for the paywall (I hate that!), there's an official youtube video you can watch for free, but I can't find it now. (Youtube history doesn't have search!)

geomark 11y ago

What he says about the age of the egg is contrary to my experience. I usually get fresh eggs from the farmers market and they peel easier than the store bought eggs which aren't as fresh. Maybe it's the fact that the eggs here aren't washed - they can be kept at room temperature quite a long time, no refrigeration needed.

Jedd 11y ago
The washing is an important and fascinating distinction. I'm in Australia, and as I understand it the unwashed egg is the default in most parts of the world (certainly here and in the UK, and I think in most of the EU). In the US the default is a washed product. But (!) this is why the default in the US is to have eggs refrigerated from soon after they leave the farm - and they need to remain refrigerated. IIRC this is because eggs that come from ~3C back to room temperature (~21C) will condense, and on washed eggs this massively increases the risk of pathogens penetrating the eggs. On non-washed eggs, this is less of a concern - but here we still recommend to not relocate eggs from the fridge to room temperature unless we're about to eat them. The membrane, though, will prevent spoilage of eggs that haven't been washed (or refrigerated) for weeks, if not months, if kept at a reasonable room temperature. (I qualify reasonable as here in AU room temperature in summer can often reach 35C.)
- geomark 11y ago
  I am originally from the U.S. and when I came to Thailand I was initially taken aback by the sight of eggs being left out for days or weeks at a time. But they don't spoil. I later learned about the washing affect. Also, it's predominately brown eggs over here. Not sure if that makes a difference. At least as far as appearances go, unwashed brown eggs don't look as dirty as unwashed white eggs.

pedalpete 11y ago

I once did a day cooking class with Herve This (the Godfather of Molecular Gastronomy) and he talked of cooking eggs in a 'boiled style' in an oven on low heat. His comment was that the oven style at low heat allowed a restaurant to cook a large quantity of eggs and have a consistent product which would be good over the course of a few hours.

bash-j 11y ago

Big fan of Kenji's food lab work. I like his trial and error methods of finding the facts. From him I've learned to steam my eggs, bash and brine my chicken, and the right way to cook a steak, not that I eat much red meat anymore - too expensive!.

kijin 11y ago

I've been using this method [1] successfully for several months now. Instead of cracking the shell and then peeling under water, you take both steps at the same time by cracking the shell in the water! [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWISKfgqZ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWISKfgqZ0

mkesper 11y ago

Be careful with statistics: In this experiment, 3000 eggs were boiled, showing a difference of 10% versus 12% cracked eggs with/without pricking before cooking. Statistically, this does not have _any significance_ at all, though: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww1.wdr.de%2Ffernsehen%2Fwissen%2Fquarks%2Fsendungen%2Fei132.html&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr... (Sorry, that translation is hilarious).

tokenadult 11y ago
From the article: "Here's the truth: there is no 100% fool-proof method, and anybody who tells you different is selling something. And I do believe I've tried them all, many, many times over. The number of eggs I've boiled over the last several years in carefully controlled circumstances numbers well into the thousands, but despite that, the best boiled egg I cooked this year is no better than the best boiled egg I cooked twelve years ago in that Beacon Hill kitchen."
GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
On the other hand, if you actually bother to do the math, using the normal approximation you get that a 95% confidence interval around p=0.1 with n=3000 has an upper bound of 0.111, which is well-separated from p'=0.12. (in fairness, the confidence intervals do overlap each other)

zwily 11y ago

I eat a lot of boiled eggs, and this is what I've been using for the past 6 months: Nordic Ware Microwave Egg Boiler https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007M2BN0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007M2BN0 Works surprisingly well, consistent, etc. it basically steams them.

ryandamm 11y ago

Kenji is awesome, and probably the best reason to read seriouseats. But for anyone who enjoys food science, you really have to start with Harold McGee's classic "On Food and Cooking": http://smile.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp/0684800012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446716055&sr=8-1&keywords=on+food+and+cooking http://smile.amazon.com/Food-Cooking-Science-Lore-Kitchen/dp... (Sorry for the enormous URL.) Also, I binge-listen to Dave Arnold's podcast, "Cooking Issues" on Heritage Radio network. A treasure trove of food science facts, going well beyond eggs: sous vide meat, hydrocolloids, liquid nitrogen cocktails, etc. http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/cooking-issues/ http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/cooking-issues/ (You really have to give the show a chance, though -- it's very conversational, and less... polished than your typical show.) Also, anyone interested in food science should really consider an iSi whipper for booze infusion and other experimentation. No really, please do it, your life will be better (or at least boozier): http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=4463.html http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=4463.html (Arnold has progressed the technique a lot since then, but this primer is pretty good nonetheless. The FCI blog is basically dead; the podcast and Twitter are his current outlets.) But yeah, I screw around in the kitchen a lot (though cook less useful food than my wife does). Pressure cooker, weird enzymes, hydrocolloids... but the iSi whipper booze-infusion technique is my all-time favorite kitchen hack. You can drink toasted hazelnut bourbon in a Manhattan like, six minutes from now! (I hope it's nighttime when you read this.) Four minutes to microwave toast the nuts, plus two minutes to nitrous-infuse them. You might want to chop them in between and filter through a coffee filter after. Sorry, my nerd is showing. I hate eggs, especially boiled eggs, but this post hit a fun nerve for me.

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bambax 11y ago
On Food and Cooking is a great book (and so much cheaper than Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine -- although there's a "light" version of this which is quite good). Never heard about the iSi infusion technique before now, but am going to try it straight away! Thanks! ;-)
- 11y ago

gadders 11y ago

I would just say that for people that love eating eggs, if you have the space get a couple of chickens. They are about as hard to look after as rabbits, and once you have proper, fresh eggs you won't go back to store-bought.

Jedd 11y ago
{much nodding} They're also a great way of recycling your green waste. Quail are meant to be comparably fun & easy to keep too, but no first hand experience on that front.
- gadders 11y ago
  Our neighbour had quail. They're cute, but very flighty compared to chickens.
MC7447a 11y ago
> once you have proper, fresh eggs you won't go back to store-bought. Placebo http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-ca... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100792.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06...
- treehau5 11y ago
  They don't "taste" better on their own, but the fact remains that fresh yolk is firmer. Firmer yolks yield better results in some recipes, thus creating a better product, and tasting better. Also, texture wise, fresh eggs are better. Taste involves all the senses.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- Spooky23 11y ago
  Not really. Cage free vs. caged or organic corn vs. non-organic corn is a feel good thing. It all depends on what they eat. Both articles actually say this, but bury it for some reason. Hens in a barnyard eating high quality feed supplemented by insects, etc have a different flavor and texture than hens just fed feed. "Eggland's best" taste different because they are supplemented with flax. Similar phenomena exists with beef and pork. Grass fed beef tastes different due to more Omega-3 in grass. Danish pork tastes a little different because the pigs eat fish.

PepeGomez 11y ago

>As you can see, not one of them is a perfect hard-cooked egg: the eggs go directly from having slightly translucent centers to having rubbery whites. This happens when you cut them in half when they're still hot. The trick is to let them sit in the water until it cools down after cooking, or at least don't cut them until they cool down considerably.

suprjami 11y ago

Damn, I read this article a couple of weeks ago when making my own eggs. Little did I know there was so much delicious HN karma to be had. I'll just submit every site I visit in future.

Sealy 11y ago

>But of course, there's still a lot of eggsplaining to do. Upvoting this share just because of this pun!

jschwartzi 11y ago

I have a Betty Crocker cookbook from the sixties that gives exactly the same cooking advice, right down to time, boiling start, and shocking in ice water.

jerf 11y ago

If the pressure cooker is inferior to boiling water, I wonder if that means the optimal temperature is actually below boiling. Perhaps a sous vide setup could be even better. Be a fun experiment for someone to run. It also occurs to me that there is significant evidence of numerous "cooking myths" that lasted for decades or centuries before falling to the first person to finally put them to the test. Seems like fertile ground for some interesting high school science projects that could get some interesting results.

mabermoske 11y ago
This is sort of the sous vide experiment. https://youtu.be/vA8YYexlgNs https://youtu.be/vA8YYexlgNs A co-worker sent me that a while back, said it was from the class HarvardX: SPU27x Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science Not so much about hard boiled, but cooking a yolk from raw to hard.
gvb 11y ago
Optimum temperature from TFA: Egg white: * At 180 degrees: The main protein in egg whites—ovalbumen—will cross-link and solidify, giving you a totally firm egg white (see the whites of the 7 and 9 minute eggs). Egg yolks, on the other hand, follow a different set of temperatures: * At 145 degrees: They begin to thicken and set up. * At 158 degrees: They become totally firm, but are still bright orange and shiny. ---- A sous vide setup might work, but it probably isn't worth the effort for eggs. You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees. TBD is whether the 145 degree sous vide temperature hurts peel-ability (likely) and how long to cook the egg to finish the whites properly without overcooking the yoke.
- jerf 11y ago
  "You would want to set the temperature to 145..158 degrees, depending on your desired yoke consistency and then drop the egg in boiling water to finish the whites to 180 degrees." I was unclear about what I was thinking. I was thinking using the sous vide hardware to prep water at 200F or 190F and try boiling in that, since trying to maintain that temperature by hand is very hard, or at least, very labor intensive. But my failure to communicate that well produced another interesting strategy from you. And I have to admit I'm more searching for perfection in the abstract sense than interested in changing how I cook them. If perfect turns out to be "individually microwave the egg for 6 seconds, then cook in sous vide bath at 185F for six minutes, then boil for 3 more, then dump in ice bath immediately"... yeah, I'm not going to do that. But I'm intellectually curious.

peterwwillis 11y ago

Actually, the easiest way to peel eggs is with a spoon. I use this method on new eggs, old eggs, cold eggs, hot eggs, soft-boiled, medium-boiled and hard-boiled. As long as you push the spoon against the inside of the shell only and move slowly, you can get the whole thing in about 30-60 seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV9ytMg_fi4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV9ytMg_fi4

mikekchar 11y ago

There is one method he didn't mention. Put the egg in a pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and cover. Wait 10 minutes. Shock cool immediately under running water. I only boil eggs now and again, but I have a 100% success rate on peeling with this method. I also don't do anything special while peeling. Just crack the shell any old way and peel it. Never once had a marred surface. Never once had dimples in the eggs (probably the shock cooling, as he suggested). Some variables: Gas stove on medium high heat. At sea level (well, technically 4 meters above sea level...). Very fresh eggs (probably only 2-3 days on average). Eggs started at room temperature (although exactly once I started with a cold egg with no perceived difference). I'd be interested to see if anyone else has used this technique.

ska 11y ago
I've used this method many, times (a few hundred, say) and it works fairly well, but definitely not 100% success on peeling. Also some variability on yolk consistency.
eranki 11y ago
I used to do it this way until I read this article a while back -- the hot start method gives me much easier-to-peel eggs than the cold start used to. I start with my eggs from the fridge and usually toward the end of their lifecycle though.
samstave 11y ago
This is the best egg toaster, I have this and love it: http://www.amazon.com/West-Bend-TEM500W-Muffin-Toaster/dp/B008YNFB3Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446747309&sr=8-1&keywords=toast+and+egg+toaster http://www.amazon.com/West-Bend-TEM500W-Muffin-Toaster/dp/B0...

ThrustVectoring 11y ago

I'm lazy to a fault, and I cook eggs by cracking them into a bowl of water and nuking it in the microwave until done. No peeling, no cleaning up the pot, much less waiting.