It's important to start the eggs in cold water — bringing the water and eggs up in temperature together ensures even cooking and prevents cracking. Bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat, then immediately remove the pan from the heat. Cover, and let stand for 10 minutes. Carefully pour out the hot water.
That means easy peel boiled eggs! Add salt and vinegar to the water before cooking. I already talked about this above. The salt permeates the shell a little bit, and the vinegar helps to break down the shells, making them easier to peel.
Cover them with cool water by 1 inch. Cover the pan with a lid and bring water to a rolling boil over high heat; when the water has reached a boil, reduce heat to medium-high and set the timer for the desired time. Boil for 6 – 7 minutes over medium-high heat for perfect hard boiled eggs.
Bring the water to a full rolling boil, over high heat. Carefully add the eggs, return the water to an almost boil and cook for 6 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for 6 minutes. Carefully pour out half the water and cover the eggs with ice cubes and chill for 6 minutes more.
Carefully place the eggs in a large saucepan; add cold water to cover by one inch, and bring to a rolling boil. Cover pan; remove from heat. Let stand 12 minutes, then drain and rinse under cool water. To store, keep eggs unpeeled in the refrigerator, up to 4 days.
As soon as the water comes to a boil, turn off the heat! The eggs sit for about 15 minutes to let them cook fully through.
Chef Ramsay opts to boil his eggs for four and a half minutes to keep the egg's center slightly soft. When your eggs are finished boiling, drain the water and run the eggs under cold tap water in the pot. According to Chef Ramsay, cooling the eggs as quickly as possible prevents their yolks from turning gray.
Bring eggs to room temperature by leaving them on the counter. Place the eggs in a pot of cold water just large enough to hold them in a single layer. Make sure water is covering the eggs and then slowly bring to a simmer to prevent cracking. Boil for 8 minutes, drain, and cool in an ice bath.
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.
Pricking the bottom of the larger side of your eggs not only keeps them from cracking but also makes them easier to peel. This is because there's air in the fatter, flatter part of your egg. When water heats the egg, that air pocket expands and creates pressure inside the shell, which can crack it.
If you're still struggling, peel the eggs under cold running water, which will help separate the shell from the egg. For a more eco-friendly solution than keeping your tap running, you can just peel the eggs in a water bath. The water will have the same effect of slipping under the shell and helping dislodge the egg.
When you hard cook an egg, this air heats up, expands, and escapes through pores in the shell—but not before the egg white sets. This leaves the egg with a flattened end. Pricking the egg provides a quick escape route for the air, which gives you an egg with a smoothly rounded end.
This is because the egg white or “albumen” in a fresh egg has a relatively low pH level, making it acidic. When cooked, these fresh egg whites bond strongly to the inner shell's membrane. As an egg ages, the pH level rises and the inner membrane is less likely to bond to the albumen, so the shell peels off much easier.
The discoloration forms because of a reaction between sulfur in the egg white and iron in the yolk when eggs have been cooked for too long or at too high a temperature. Cooking eggs in hot, not boiling, water, then cooling immediately, minimizes this.
Soft Boiled (in the shell) [Oeuf a la Coque] - boiling time 3 to 4 minutes. Soft Boiled (without shell) [Oeuf Mollet] - boiling time 5 minutes. Hard Boiled [Oeuf Dur] - boiling time 8 to 10 minutes served with or without the shell.
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.
Place your eggs in a pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then cover, remove from the heat and set aside 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, cool in ice water and peel.
Cook for the following times, depending on how you like your eggs: 5 minutes for soft boiled, 7½ minutes for semi-firm or 10 minutes for hard-boiled. Remove the eggs with the spoon and serve with hot, buttered toast, or allow to cool before peeling.
Here's a hard-boiled egg tip that we know to be true: Starting your eggs in hot, already-boiling water makes them easier to peel. In a column for Serious Eats, cookbook author and food columnist J. Kenji López-Alt found that "starting cold resulted in eggs that had just over a 50% success rate for clean peeling.