Cooking For Engineers

[moorejb]

I went home for Easter this past Sunday and had my first hard boiled egg! Crazy right? I fell in love with them and would love to learn how to make them.
Any tips?

[Michael Chu]

Believe it or not, there are a variety of methods to boil eggs hard. The best methods actually involve little or no boiling. My favorite is to place the eggs (on a single layer) in a pot with enough cold (room temperature) water to cover (by at least 1/2-in.). Place the pot on your stove set to the highest heat level (uncovered). Once it starts to boil, cover, move the pot off the heat, and wait. It takes about 12 minutes for large eggs. Add 2 minutes for extra large eggs; subtract two minutes if the eggs were room temperature instead of coming out of the refrigerator.

Why all the fuss? Overcooking an egg in its shell can result in an unpleasant looking green tinge to the surface of the yolk. If you don't care about this, feel free to cook the eggs a bit longer.

[opqdan]

[Michael Chu]

[cloud_swift]

There is usually one more step to any hard boiling recipe - after the cooking time is over, plunge the eggs into cold water to stop further cooking.

One way is to transfer them into a bowl of cold water (with some ice cubes). If I'm feeling lazy, I just dump the hot water out of the pan and run cold tap water into the pan until the eggs and pan have cooled down. I've avoided green yolks with either method.

I usually start with room temperature eggs and 10 minutes in the hot water after boil.

I first learned the method where one leaves the water on the heat simmering the eggs with a slightly shorter cooking time. The difficulty of this method (especially if you have a slow reacting ceramic cooktop as I had until I re-did my kitchen) is having to fuss with the heat to keep the pan at a gentle boil or simmer. If the water boils too hard eggs may crack and leak white. If it drops below simmer you don't know where you are on cooking time. The bring to a boil and take off the heat method fixes that so its what I prefer now.

[GaryProtein]

You might find this thread interesting. There is a lot of discussion on the how's and why's of hard boiled eggs.

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=437&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[qwertyblue64]

What I do is to:

Put the egg in a pot of water and let it boil---the egg is in the water while the water is being brought up to a boil.

Then when the water is at a full boil, turn off the heat and cook for 15 minutes using the heat of the pot.

Then take the eggs out and eat.

[Only Cookware]

I've tried cooking eggs this way (ie. taking them off the heat as soon as they reach boiling point and leaving them for 12 or so minutes) but I have found that the yolk is generally too soft for my liking.

My method is to put the eggs in cold water and place it on the heat. When the water starts to boil I turn it down so it is on a slow boil and then leave for about 12 minutes to cook. Then I remove from the heat and plunge under cold water.

[pbone]

I agree with the method of bringing 'em to boil, then take them off and let them sit in the hot water, covered, for about 12 minutes but THEN, when you put them in cold water (immediately the 12 mins is up) hit them all over, tapping all around each egg in the cold water so the shells are thoroughly cracked up. THIS is the secret to making them easy to peel. Break the membrane when you do this. I peel them immediately. You can cover them in a bowl or jar with cold water and they keep nicely for a few days in the fridge. Cheers!

[Guest]

There's a lot more you can do with hard-boiled eggs than just eat them as they are with salt.

In the UK a very popular snack food is the "Scotch Egg" eaten cold at picnics. It's a shelled hardboiled egg encased in sausage-meat, dipped in beaten egg & breadcrumbs & deep-fried til golden. We also add quartered h/b eggs to a fish pie along with the creamy white sauce under a golden crispy broiled mashed potato topping.

Or try an old-fashioned English sandwich filling. Mash up some h/b eggs with de-seeded finely chopped tomatoes, salt & white pepper to taste & a little squirt of salad cream (NOT MAYO)

Many pubs in UK Northern towns sell pickled h/b eggs from a jar on the bar very cheaply, a great snack with a pint of beer & a packet of crisps.

[srhcb]

Remember, low and slow is the way to cook any egg dish. Hard-cooked (NOT hard-boiled) eggs should be treated as gently as possible.

Keep in mind the significant temperatures (F) in egg cookery:

158 - Egg yolks set

160 - Salmonella’s Instant Kill Temp

165 - Whole eggs set

180 - In cakes, egg proteins begin to coagulate, and starch granules begin to absorb water, swell and gelate; actual setting temp depends on ratio of sugar

190 - The highest temp an egg can reach without coagulating, regardless of the presence of other ingredients

For the record, I use Shirley Corriher's method:

enough (older) eggs to cover the bottom of a heavy pan
enough salted water to cover eggs to depth of one inch
bring to full boil for 30 seconds
cover pan, remove from heat, set 15 minutes
rinse for 10 minutes under cold running water

Using this method there is just the right amount of heat in the water to be transfered to the egg as slowly and gently as possible. There's no need to subject the egg to sustained 212 degree temps.

[Blue Pilgrim]

I only tried once so I can't give much info, but it worked well: instead of boiling the eggs last time, I put them in a veggie steamer basket. Less water to boil and faster to boil, and it was easier than fishing them out of water afterwards (to peel under cold running water).

Worth trying, I think.

[AdmNaismith not signed in]

12 minutes on heat after you get the water to boiling? Seems like a long time.

I put the eggs and water (cold or Room temp) in the pan, then bring it to a boil.
At a boil, let it cook for 2 to 5 min. Remove from heat and let it cool back to room temp.
This is very gentle on the egg, and you don't need to fool with ice- or running-water. Also makes for velvety yolks.


Shirred eggs (Sort of a sophisticated take on HB eggs)-

Butter a custard cup.
Add one egg and a spoonful of milk/cream.
Set in a pan of hot water and bake 350deg for 15 min (you can sprinkle with cheese at the 10min mark).

[Blue Pilgrim]

Thing is, if you are boiling the eggs the heat transfer is more or less constant and consistant, but if you take the pot off the heat then there is more variation from the amount of water, the ambient temperature, or even the type of pot -- all of which affects the cooling rate of the water and the amount of heat in the water that's left to transfer to the eggs. Even the altitude (pressure) will make a difference, as with any cooking with boiling. There are so many variables that you can't easily tell what will happen if someone else tries the same method and times.

[gfairbairn]