How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs

• by Trent

Introduction

• Hard boiled eggs should be the easiest food you ever prepare. From the ingredients to the cooking utensils, How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs will make a hard-boiling expert out of you in no time!

Step 1: What You Will Need

• The ingredients and cooking utensils are very basic. Odds are that you have everything in your kitchen already.
  • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 
                              VideoJug: How To Make Hard Boiled Eggs

Ingredients

• Eggs
• Water
• Salt
• Ice cubes
• Vinegar (optional)

Equipment

• A stove
• A saucepan that is big enough to fit all the eggs and an inch of water
• A bowl or pan for cooling
• A timer
  • or
• A microwave
• A microwave-safe container or a microwaveable egg cooker

Step 2: Eggs: Before You Boil

• An egg consists of four main parts: the yolk, egg-white, albumen and shell. The albumen is a thin membrane that separates the egg from the shell. The more separation you get between the albumen and the egg yolk/white, the easier it is to peel after it's boiled. There are two ways to create space between the albumen and the egg: storage and cooling. We will focus on the storage portion now. To learn how cooling affects eggs, refer to Step 4.

Storage

1. Fresh eggs are harder to peel after they've been boiled. This is because as an egg matures, the carbon dioxide in the albumen decreases, thus decreasing the acidity. The longer you store your eggs, the lower the acidity and the easier they will be to peel. You should store your eggs for 7-10 days, or as long as you can hold off your hard boiled egg craving.
2. When your eggs are ready, take them out of the refrigerator and allow them to adjust to room temperature before placing them in the water.

Step 3: Boil Away!

Once the water starts to boil you can turn off the heat. (Photo by Mahalo)

• The worst thing you can do when boiling eggs is to over-cook them. Over-cooking eggs will leave a greenish-gray color around the yolk, and a sulphuric taste.

1. Place the desired amount of eggs in the pan and fill with water until there is an inch of water covering the eggs.
2. Add a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of vinegar.
   • This will help keep the egg from cracking and spilling out of the shell, as well as make the egg easier to peel.
3. Place the pot with the eggs on the stove and bring to a boil.
4. As soon as it starts boiling, remove the pot and place it on a cool burner, or turn down the heat to a low simmer.
5. Cover and let stand for 10-12 minutes.

Microwave That Egg

A microwaveable egg cooker. (Photo by Mahalo)

• Cooking eggs over an open flame is not the only way to make hard boiled eggs. The microwave has another trick up its sleeve—cooking hard boiled eggs. There are at least two ways to hard boil eggs in a microwave. One is using a microwaveable egg cooker and the other is using a non-stick microwave-safe container.

Microwaveable egg cooker

• This is the easiest way to hard boil an egg. Forget about the saucepan and all the time it takes to hard boil eggs on the stove. All the egg cooker needs is water and eggs—the microwave takes care of the rest. You can buy egg cookers at Target and Amazon, as well as most other kitchen appliance stores.

Microwave-safe container

• This recipe will make your hard boiled eggs resemble the eggs in an Egg McMuffin, so there is no peeling involved. You can use any type of microwave-safe container that will fit an egg. A good general rule is that you want your container to be the size of one cup in a muffin pan. If you have a microwave-safe muffin pan, feel free to use that.

1. Coat your container with a non-stick spray.
2. Crack the eggs and pour them into the container. Be careful to keep the yolk intact.
3. Cover the container with a paper towel and cook for 45 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes.
4. If the eggs aren't done, put them back in for 15 seconds or until cooked to your standards.

Step 4: Cool Those Eggs

• Cooling the eggs is the last step in achieving hard boiled status. You will want to make the water as cold and icy as possible so that the shell separates from the egg and makes it easier to peel.

Ice cubes help cool the eggs. (Photo by Mahalo)

1. Drain the hot water from your pan or microwaveable egg container.
2. Once you have drained the hot water, you will need to cool the eggs with cold water and ice. This can be done two different ways: in the same pot, or in a different container.
   1. In the same pot. Pour cold water in your pot. Do this and drain a few times so that the eggs and the pot cool off, then add ice.
   2. In a different container. Fill a bowl or container big enough to hold the eggs with cold water. Scoop the eggs into the new bowl/container and add ice.
   • If you microwaved your eggs, you can cool them by placing the container under the faucet and pouring cold water on them until they are cool enough to touch. Once they are cool enough to handle, place them in an ice bath.
3. Let the eggs chill for 10 minutes. Then dry them off; they're ready to eat or be stored.
4. If you're not eating your eggs right away, store them in the refrigerator in a container that will lock in the odor.
5. Make sure you consume the eggs within five days.

Step 5: Peel Away!

• Now it's time to peel off the shell to see how your eggs turned out. If you have waited at least a week before you boiled your eggs and if you have given them a proper ice bath, then the shell should peel right off. There are several different ways to peel an egg, but the method that seems most efficient involves rolling and cracking the shell.

1. Take the egg and crack both ends on a hard surface. Your counter will work just fine.
2. Now take the egg and lay it on its side on your counter top. Press your palm to the top of the egg, apply some pressure and roll the egg so that you crack the body of the shell.
3. The egg should be cracked all over. Start with any piece and begin peeling. If you have waited at least a week before boiling the eggs and given them a proper ice bath, you will notice that the shell comes right off.
4. Rinse the egg under water so that all pieces of the shell are gone.

Hard Boiled Egg Recipes

Deviled egg recipes

• Deviled eggs are the most common dish using hard boiled eggs. The basic concept involves scooping the yolks out, mixing them with mayonaise, mustard and other spices and putting that mixture back into the egg. Here are some recipes for making deviled eggs.

• Food Network: Deviled eggs recipes  
• About.com: Best Deviled Eggs Recipe  
• All Recipes: Deviled Eggs
• The American Eggs Board: Deviled Egg Florentine

Hard boiled egg recipes

• Food Network: Hard Boiled Egg Recipes
• A Veggie Venture: Mom's Potato Salad
• Recipe Source: Millie's Hard Boiled Egg Salad Dressing
• All Recipes: Egg Salad
• Recipe Gal: Egg Salad Recipes

Resources for How to Make the Best Hard Boiled Eggs

• Simply Recipes: How to Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
• Kalyns Kitchen: How to Make Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs and Recipes Using Hard-Boiled Eggs
• About.com: How To Make Hard-Boiled Eggs 
• Microwave Cooking with Carolyn Dodson: Microwaved Hard Boiled Egg
• Target: Egg cookers
• Amazon: Egg cookers
• Vinegarbook: Vinegar articles - Cooking tricks with vinegar
• Kitchen Savvy: Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs
• DVO.com: Perpetually Perfect and Peelable Hard-Boiled Eggs
• ThriftyFun.com: Peeling Hard Boiled Eggs

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