Cooking For Engineers

[username]

For those of you getting cracked eggs, here's what I usually do: I lower the egg into the boiling water using a spoon only halfway (half the egg out of the water) for about 5 seconds until it begins to sweat, then submerge it completely ... do not let it drop to the bottom, however, but lower it with the spoon. Yes, it's more of a pain, almost guaranteed to work.

As an added precaution, I also put 1 tbsp of salt in the water to prevent major leakages if they do crack.

[Mjames]

Years ago a friend's mother said her trick to soft-boiling her eggs was to bring to boil and then take off heat and in the time it took her to toast 2 slices of rye bread in her toaster (once on medium toast, flip the slices and re-toast) was a perfect soft boil.

[Felix]

I tried it just the way it was explained in the article above, timing and everything to a tee and the egg came out just as indicated. Bravo! I also noted the one gentlemen talking about steaming his eggs, this I will have to test as well, sounds interesting!

[CuDenny]

I have always used large eggs put in a pan with 1/2 to 1 inch of water covering and started with cold eggs and cold water. With the heat on high I would bring this to a boil. I would then remove from the heat or put the heat to the lowest setting and cover with the lid. I would then wait 3 minutes before dumping the water and flushing the eggs in cold tap water for maybe 20 seconds or until they were barely warm to touch. The insides are still quite warm. I am using Jumbo eggs today and was hoping to find a recommended time for them. I will try an additional 30 seconds for them for my first try.

[Frank in NYC]

Thank you for your trial and error! I followed your recipe exactly, and made perfect, soft-boiled eggs.

Frank in NYC