KLA attacks the universal problem of a perfect, tender, easily peeled hard-boiled egg, in his usual fashion: with a dozen friends and 700(!) eggs from a variety of sources, cooked every way possible.
A great read, and the recipe link is in the article:
How to Boil the Perfect Egg
In his first column for The Times, J. Kenji López-Alt tests his way to the best egg: perfectly peelable and tender throughout. The perfect steamed hard boiled egg
PS re access:
NY Times allows max 5 free articles per month.
Also, I put in the title of the article because like the WSJournal, the NY Times allows anyone to Google the title (something general like this one, it helps to add Kenji’s name). Click on the Google link and you can access for free.
Since the article is behind a pay wall . . . . it is still an interesting read if you subscribe or choose to do a free trial subscription . . . . . but so we can discuss . . . .
But the long and short - he recommends steaming (as many on here do as well) essentially, says that plunging into ice water after cooking makes them harder to peel and doesn’t decrease likelihood of a green ring . . . . 6 minutes for a warm liquid yolk and firm whites, 8 1/2 minutes for a translucent, fudgy yolk, or 11 minutes for a yolk that is just barely firm all the way through.
My family, for deviled eggs, has decided we prefer 13 min - since the whites are a little firmer (easier to pick up) and the yolks have lost all their “fudgy” looking bits. We cook cold, straight from the fridge - as did KLA for his timings.
“STEAMING!”, I shouted when I saw the teaser headline. My enduring thanks to whichever Hunion intruduced me to that method. Kenji didn’t mention that steaming has the added convenience of allowing the pot to hold more than a single layer of eggs. As for debunking the ice bath, if you don’t immediately dunk the eggs in cold (at least!) water, cooking will continue. Not a good thing. The times I did my previous technique, the 12 minute steep in boiling water with the heat turned off, and forgot the timer, I got eggs that were rubbery, and impossible to peel.
I have nailed down the perfect method, although it won’t work for many of you (probably almost none of you). I ask Mrs. ricepad to boil some eggs. She has her method down to a science. Perfectly cooked every time, and easy to peel, too. I don’t even know what she does.
Over the years I have tried many tricks: small pinhole in the fat end, starting with room temp eggs in cold water, shocking in an ice bath, steaming for X minutes, bring to a simmer then let stand…you name the trick and I’ve probably tried it, but IME none of them yield consistently perfect eggs. And every time I try a new method, Mrs. ricepad scoffs and says, “Just ask me to do it. I’ll boil some eggs for you.” So for the last 10 years or so, that’s been my method.
sometime in the 1980’s, I learned a good way to do hard boiled eggs.
first: about poking a hole in the big end . . . nothing to do with ease of peeling.
eggs have an air sack (grows larger with age) and air expands when heated - like when you put an egg in hot water or a steamer . . .
the purpose of poking the hole in the big end is - - - if the egg has any small crack(s) or defect - - - to relieve the internal pressure in the egg so it does not crack open & spew white stuff everywhere.
second: adding vinegar / baking soda / salt /etc etc - does absolutely nothing. if you have to cook the eggs long enough for the vinegar acid to soften the shell, there’s multiple other issues in play…
the most reliable way . . .
get the water to a boil, or the steamer up to steaming, only then remove the egg from the refrigerator (if kept there.) boil / steam for ‘M’ minutes and ‘S’ seconds.
also very important: keep your eggs in the same place in the fridge every time. the ‘starting temperature’ of the egg does affect cooking time. this really is important. we got a new fridge and the ‘eggs in the carton’ in the new fridge are 4F’ colder than before - I had to adjust my cooking times!
and here is where my own decades of personal experience parts ways with KL-A.
I boil them, I don’t steam eggs - takes too long.
after the boil time - which one must establish by trial and error for the start temp of your eggs - refrigerated or on the counter -
plunge them into ice water. not cold water - a pan/bowel of water with lots of ice cubes floating in the water. shock chill them at least 15 minutes - up to hours.
to peel, crack&roll the egg. about 50% of the time the shell will come off in two pieces.
see the video
turn up the sound, you’ll hear the crackling as it rolls…
and . . . yes. there is an explanation as to how/why the ice plunge works so well:
when the time is up and the egg is finished cooking, the egg is still hot.
as it continues to cook the internal continue to give off “steam” aka water vapor.
that water vapor hits the inside of the ice cold shell, and condenses.
that condensed water provides a thin water lubricant/separation layer between the egg shell and the (cooked) egg white. it peels cleanly.
note regarding keeping eggs on the counter: the eggs will be warmer/cooler as your ambient kitchen temperature changes over the seasons… and the egg starting temperature will affect the cooking time.
The story I heard about poking a pinhole in the egg is to allow some shrinkage of the egg away from the shell as it cools to make peeling easier. It doesn’t work consistently, which, IMO, means it doesn’t work.
What the hell do I know? My success rate with boiled eggs suggests I know jack shit about boiling eggs! I’m lucky I have a Mrs. ricepad to do it for me. Everybody should have a Mrs. ricepad, but you can’t have mine.
The Kenji article mentions the goal of the pinhole, to prevent the dimple.
“A Simple Cure for the Dimple
Does anyone else get bothered by the dimple created by the air space in the fat end of the egg? I sure do. The problem is that the older the egg is, the bigger that air space gets. This means that the eggs that are most suitable for boiling also happen to come out the ugliest,** and nobody wants to be that guy who serves the deformed deviled eggs.
If you’re to trust Jacques Pépin (and I usually do!), solving this problem is as simple as pricking the fat end of the egg with a pin. This allows the air inside to be pressed out rapidly as the egg cooks, leaving you with a completely smooth egg. Usually.”
…..
I found the cold start vs warm start of the article interesting.
….
I have been using the same method for decades. It was the method from both the Georgia Egg Board and the Canadian Egg Board.
Having them sit with the lid on after they came to a rolling boil for 12 minutes today left me with jammier eggs than I like, with large eggs. 14 or 15 minutes next time.
every egg is laid with an air pocket.
it is completely impossible to “eliminate” the dimple.
is it truth as an egg ages, the air pocket gets larger.
ps: it is not an “air” pocket - it is carbon dioxide (CO2) exuded from the white.
I have the impression that KL-A has ‘farmed out’ some of his opus-meister opinion pieces, because - especially his latest egg “research” - some of the stuff is utterly wrong / incorrect.
as for preventing the green ring uglies, that happens when an shell egg is overcooked.
per KL-A prior work:
"
Yolks
* At 145 degrees: They begin to thicken and set up.
* At 158 degrees: They become totally firm, but are still bright orange and shiny.
* At 170 degrees: They become pale yellow and start to turn crumbly.
* 170 degrees-plus: They dry out and turn chalky. The sulfur in the whites rapidly reacts with the iron in the yolks, creating ferrous sulfide, and tinging the yolks.
"
in my experience, about 15% of my eggs would crack and spill if i didn’t pierce the egg prior to adding to the boil. when piercing, 0% have cracked. as a result, i always prick the eggs (unless i’m in a foreign kitchen and don’t have access to the right tool).
If I do not warm up the eggs prior to boiling, I lose around 10-15% to cracking.
If I warm them up but put them in water at a full boil, I still lose 5-10%.
If I warm them up and put them in water that is a minute or two short of a boil, I do not lose any to cracking but I seldom get the slightly jammy medium boiled eggs I like because I either over or under cook them.
I have no answer because I usually cook them wrong.
The only thing I think I know is that fresh eggs are tough to peel. Older eggs are easier to peel in my experience.
