284533 Fri Apr 14 11:19:33 -0700 2006 12 31 Home Cooking 0 1521334 Every year when I boil a dozen eggs for my son to color for Easter at least two or three of them crack and the white spills out. My son jokes that I can't even boil an egg. Please help. Thanks! Fri Apr 14 11:19:33 -0700 2006 0 Bugfat 1 1521336 Bring water to a boil with the eggs in the pan, cover and take it off the heat. Leave for 10-12 minutes. (Without the boiling, the eggs won't knock around and won't break). Rinse immediately with cold water, plunding into an ice bath to fully cool. Fri Apr 14 11:22:58 -0700 2006 1521334 0 Aaron 1 1521348 Never ever boil an egg. As i was taught in Foods and Nutrition class in college say hard cook never hard boil because you never really boil an egg if you want a quality egg. Put the eggs in a pan with water to cover by a couple of inches. Add a splash of vinegar (if one should crack this keeps the white from wandering all over the place). Bring the water just to a boil, stir once remove from heat and cover. Let stand 15 minutes, adn use a timer. Then plunge into a bowl of ice and water. This is for standard large eggs. If you are using XL eggs they are going to need to stand 18-20 minutes Fri Apr 14 12:00:11 -0700 2006 1521334 0 Candy 1 1521350 Yes, you never boil an egg. Also, if you want eggs that are peelable, use old eggs or leave fresh eggs out on the counter at least overnight before cooking them. Fri Apr 14 12:04:07 -0700 2006 1521334 0 Karl S 1 1521365 Interesting. The recipe I've been most happy with is a bit different from Karl and Candy (but similar). Cover eggs with an inch or two of water. Bring water to a 'gentle boil' and let them be there for 1 minute (I think, maybe I've got that bit wrong?). Turn off heat, cover, let sit 6-7 minutes. Take out of water, plunge into cold water (which I'll admit, I never do). To me, this makes the perfect egg. Just a smidge of dark yellow on the inside, no green coating on the yolk. But, here's the question, am I actually not doing hardboiled but instead a medium boiled? Fri Apr 14 12:46:02 -0700 2006 1521334 0 smokey 1 1521366 To reiterate and put into practice the notion that it's hard cooked and not boiled, you can get the same (and arguably more predictable) egg by baking in an oven for about 1 hour. Set the temp to 160-180 depending on how "hard" you want your eggs. (Timing does NOT have to be precise, temperature does.) Also you can steam them. Fri Apr 14 12:46:52 -0700 2006 1521334 0 mod'ern 1 1521372 Fill a pot with water. Add eggs (make sure there is enough room and the water covers the eggs) Put it on the heat. While it comes to the boil, get an ice water bath ready. Lot's of water, lots of ice. As soon as the water in the egg pan starts to boil, set your timer. For large eggs, I would say 7 to 8 minutes. For extra large, maybe 9. When the timer goes off, take them out and put them in the ice bath. Never fails. No sulfur. No green rings. You may get a few little cracks when it is on full boil, but nothing to worry about. Fri Apr 14 13:21:00 -0700 2006 1521334 0 Tugboat 1 1521397 Place cold, week-old eggs in bottom of a large Dutch oven. Cover with cold water and add a teaspoon or two of salt. Bring to a boil. Leave at full boil for three minutes. Remove from heat and cover; allow to sit 15 minutes. Drain water from pot and cover eggs with very cold water or water to which you've added ice. Not once using this method have I ever had a problem with eggs that won't peel well or yolks that have the ugly grey ring around them. YUK!! This is the way we learned to do it in home economics class in college and it's never failed me. Fri Apr 14 15:09:15 -0700 2006 1521334 0 pilotgirl210 1 1521399 Prick the larger end of the egg with a fine needle and they won't crack. Fri Apr 14 15:11:04 -0700 2006 1521334 0 zigzag 2 1521596 Thanks! It worked! I tried a large pot, no boiling, ice bath etc. that other people suggested but I suspect that the needle trick was the most help. Only one hair-line crack. Sat Apr 15 14:39:46 -0700 2006 1521399 0 bugfat 1 1521466 Eggs in LOTSA water. Slowly bring to the boil. Turn off. Cover. Leave 20 minutes. Remove eggs to big pot of cold water. Leave for 15 minutes. Perfect TENDER hard boiled eggs with no dark ring. Fri Apr 14 17:57:30 -0700 2006 1521334 0 Niki Rothman 1 1521540 > My son jokes that I can't even boil an egg. Please help. What a brat! Tell him to cook his own damn eggs! :-) Sat Apr 15 01:25:09 -0700 2006 1521334 0 Jef 1 1521558 Too many eggs in the pot. If they are too close together one will hit against the other and crack. If you have to, use two pots. There's alot of advice on how to cook the eggs which I don't believe you were asking, but I go with most of the suggestions - cover with inch of hot water bring to boil turn off heat and cover and let sit for 20 minutes TURN OFF THE HEAT JUST WHEN THEY START TO BOIL. Pay attention. Otherwise the eggs start moving around and hitting against one another ... and overcook ... my egg bete noir ... not paying attention to when the boil starts. Cool as QUICKLY as possible. This is really what makes the egg pealable. You don't need old eggs. Sometimes I use eggs practically just snatched from the chicken and they peel perfectly as long as you cool those eggs ... really cool ... quickly. I use one of those spaghetti pots to cook the eggs. This way I can just lift the basket out of the hot water and immediatly plunge in the ice water that I have in the sink. Less cracking in transit. Heh, how about that. First year I don't need to pull out the cookbook to read the recipe on how to bo eggs ... and I'm quite serious about that statement. Chowhound must be turning me into a cook. Happy Easter. Sat Apr 15 10:27:35 -0700 2006 1521334 0 rworange