The water will boil a bit more quickly with the lid on, but it's fine to leave it off if you'd rather keep an eye on the eggs. You can stir the eggs very gently every now and then to make sure they've not settled at the bottom, where they'll cook less evenly and break more easily.
Tips for Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs:
Don't cover with the lid or you won't be able to see when the water starts boiling. Set a timer as soon as the water is at a boil (keep watch for the start of the boil so you aren't guessing at your timings).
If your saucepan does not come with glass lid, cover with lid anyway and leave an inch open so you can see when the water starts boiling. Keeping the lid on helps keep the steam in and eggs cook faster. If you cook without lid, eggs will need to be cooked by 1-2 minutes longer once the water starts boiling.
Adding white vinegar or apple cider vinegar to your pot of water allegedly results in softer, easier-to-peel eggshells.
Cook your eggs however you like—in a pot of boiling water with a splash of vinegar, a squeeze of lemon juice, a teaspoon of baking soda, or a pinch of salt. All of these additions help make it easier to peel boiled eggs. Slightly older eggs will make it easier to peel, but using them is not necessary.
4 minutes for slightly set yolk and set white. 5 minutes for a medium cooked firmer yolk and white. 6 minutes for hard boiled with lightly soft yolk. 8 minutes for firmly hard boiled.
The general rule of thumb to make hard-boiled eggs is to boil (simmer) them for 13 minutes. A roaring boil can crack your eggs, so yes, first bring the water up to a boil, then let the eggs simmer for 13 minutes before transferring them to an ice bath.
Put the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot with the lid. Allow the eggs to sit in the hot water for the following times according to the desired doneness: 3 minutes for SOFT boiled; 6 minutes for MEDIUM boiled; 12 minutes for HARD boiled.
Once the water is boiling, reduce the heat to low (so that there's no bubbles) and use skimmer to gently and slowly add the eggs to the water. Then, turn the heat back up to a boil. Set a timer and cook the eggs for 6 to 7 minutes for soft-boiled eggs and 12 to 14 minutes for hard-boiled eggs.
To avoid getting a green yolk, cook your eggs just long enough to reach the desired doneness—no more. And quickly plunge the cooked eggs into cold water to stop the cooking process and minimize the iron-sulfur reaction. Some people also say that the cold-water plunge makes eggs easier to peel.
But as long as more energy is being added to the water than is being lost with the vapor, the temperature will continue to rise until the water boils. Covering the pot prevents water vapor from escaping, enabling the temperature to rise more quickly.
Hard boiled eggs should be cooked for about 10-12 minutes. This timing avoids a powdery, dry yolk that comes from overcooking while keeping it solid enough for applications like devilled eggs or egg salad.
The vinegar in the water makes the eggs easier to peel. Here's why: The vinegar's acid not only dissolves some of the calcium carbonate in the shell, it also helps the whites set faster. Running the hard-boiled eggs under cold running water as you're peeling, meanwhile, helps the shell separate from the membrane.
For one to four eggs, bring the water to a rolling boil, cover the pot, and turn the heat down to its lowest setting for 12-14 minutes. For five to eight eggs, cook for 15 to 18 minutes. For nine to one dozen eggs, cook for 20 minutes. After cooking, transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water.
Place eggs in a medium pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let the eggs cook, covered, for 9 to 12 minutes, depending on your desired done-ness (see photo). Transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water and chill for 14 minutes.
Shelly McKee, a food scientist at Deb-El Foods and an expert on egg chemistry, said that boiling an egg for a long time would cause it to expel moisture. As the proteins in the egg white clump together ever more tightly, they would squeeze out the water contained within the egg.
Shocking your recently boiled eggs by submerging them into a bowl of ice water is key. The quick cooling of the hard-boiled eggs causes the egg whites to contract, freeing them from the membrane. If you let them cool for about 15 minutes, the peeling is much easier.
It doesn't matter if they are peeled or unpeeled, but it would be helpful to put the eggs in a bag and label it in order of the day you boiled them to make sure you know when they will spoil. Always make sure to dispose of hard-boiled eggs once they have been left out for too long.
👩🍳 Issue: The membrane sticking to the shell and white of an egg is the #1 reason eggs tear and fall apart when peeled. The thin translucent layer between the shell and the egg white is called the membrane.
MYTH: Salted water boils faster. TRUTH: Adding salt raises the boiling point of water (slightly), so it does make your water hotter, but it's not going to boil any faster. The amount of salt added is much too low to make a noticeable difference in your cooking time.
Cold water boils faster than hot water.
It's a wonder it persists. There is, however, a good reason to use cold water instead of hot for cooking: hot water will contain more dissolved minerals from your pipes, which can give your food an off-flavor, particularly if you reduce the water a lot.