For some reason, both my kids LOVE boiled eggs.
Unfortunately, until a few years ago, my egg boiling skills were right in line with my sewing and skateboarding skills – non-existent. Besides the fact that they often had a gooey center, I – more often than not – ended up with the saddest, most pitiful deviled eggs I’ve ever seen. Then, one day, while (yet again) making egg salad after abandoning the impossible task of trying to get a lumpy, paper thin, shredded, boiled egg white half to hold deviled egg filling, I decided to Google the perfect boiled egg. (What did I do before Google?)
Here’s how I get “practically perfect” boiled eggs, every time. (“Mary Poppins. Practically perfect in every way.”)
1. Put the eggs on the bottom of a pan, in one layer.
2. Add enough water to completely cover the eggs, maybe about an inch over.
3. Add baking soda to the water (makes peeling easier)
4. Put the pan on a burner and turn it to medium-high heat.
5. Let the water come to a boil.
6. Put the lid on the pan when the water is boiling and move the pan onto a cold burner (oh, and you should probably turn off the hot burner).
(Now here’s where I mess up all the time.)
7. Set the timer for 15 minutes for Large-sized eggs (or for 12 minutes for Medium-sized eggs or for 18 minutes for Extra Large-sized eggs).
8. Put the pan in the sink when the timer goes off (or in my case, when I remember I have a pan of eggs on the stove).
9. Run cold water into the pan until the eggs are cool (I just run water until the water is cool).
And THIS is why I’m not embarrassed to serve deviled eggs to people outside my immediate family anymore:
10. I CHILL the eggs before I peel them. I put them in the fridge for 15 minutes. (Okay, so I put them in the fridge until I remember I have boiled eggs chilling in the fridge.)
11. Gently tap a cooled egg on a flat surface and then roll it until the larger cracks turn into tiny cracks all over the egg.
12. NOW peel the egg and rinse any tiny pieces of egg shell under running water.
Note: I only feed my disposal egg shells and potato skins when FirstHusband is in the mood to crawl under the sink and unclog it (that would be never).
Check out the great tips and recipes at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy at Tammy’s Recipes! I think I’m going to try the strawberry lemonade (#7 from Stephanie) for July 4th!
I discovered this Mary Poppins egg way many years ago, and then in the business that is life, promptly forgot about it. The other day I was whining about that yucky dark green ring around my egg and remembered that there is a better way. However, I had not discovered it again.
Until today. Thank you, friend.
Oh no….you mean we shouldn’t put egg shells down the garbage disposal, I do it all the time!
For some reason unknown to me, I have always been able to boil a good egg, it’s just some weird egg instinct ability I have. 🙂
BTW, I can’t sew either! 🙂
Julie,
I wanted you to know that over NINE MONTHS AGO, I tagged this blog post in my Delicious links under FOOD. Today, I quickly and easily pulled it up and used your directions to hard-boil our Easter eggs. I hard-boiled 4 dozen eggs using your method with only ONE SINGLE broken egg! Yea!
The only advice I have to add is that eggs three to five days old are better for hard boiling than fresh eggs because of the maturation of the white membrane inside. If you can remember to do it (I never can), buy your eggs early and let them sit a week before boiling.
Thanks for the wonderful advice. Your blog is absolutely one of my most favorite ones! (-:
So…I came back to this post again for my Easter eggs…only to find that I was already the last comment – two years ago! And again, I have forgotten to buy the eggs early. Oh well. I still love your blog, even though I haven’t been reading many blogs lately. (-: