Hard-boiled eggs are an excellent base for salads, they can be stuffed with mayonnaise or other sauces or enjoyed alone as a protein-rich snack. However, if you always break the shell while cooking and you constantly find yourself a green yolk, you cannot appreciate them to the fullest. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to guarantee yourself some delicious hard-boiled eggs every time you cook them, and even better, these are techniques you can learn in minutes!
Steps
Method 1 of 2: On the stove
Step 1. Choose the eggs and place them in a saucepan or pan
Put them gently on the bottom of the pan, which must have a thick bottom. Be very gentle to avoid breaking them. Do not stack more than four.
- If you have any doubts about the freshness of the eggs, check them by placing them in a bowl of salted water. If they go to the bottom, they are fresh. If they float, you have to throw them away.
- To keep them from breaking as they boil, you can place folded gauze on the bottom of the pot to cushion the impacts. However, this is not a mandatory step.
Step 2. Fill the pot with cold tap water
Cover the eggs with at least 3cm of water. Add a pinch of salt. You can hold the eggs still with one hand while you pour the water, to prevent them from breaking. Alternatively, aim the stream of water at the inside of the pan.
- Cold water prevents the eggs from overcooking. Never put them directly in a pot of boiling water, otherwise the shells will break and the contents will spread in the water (you will get poached eggs).
- Salt helps firm egg whites quickly. It also helps to seal the small cracks that could form on the shells during cooking.
Step 3. Put the pot on the stove over medium heat
Cover it with a lid and wait for the water to boil. Thanks to the lid, the water should boil slightly faster, but you can also omit it if you prefer to check the eggs.
You can mix the contents of the pan very gently from time to time, to prevent the eggs from sitting on the bottom - where they cook less evenly and where they are at greater risk of breaking. Use a wooden spoon for this
Step 4. When the water reaches a boil, turn off the heat
Leave the lid on the pot. The heat of the water and the residual heat of the burner will finish cooking the eggs. Depending on the consistency you want, you can wait from 3 to 20 minutes:
- If you love barbecued eggs, remove them from the water after 3 minutes or less. The egg whites will be firm while the yolks will be hot and creamy.
- If you like medium-cooked eggs, remove them from the water after 5-7 minutes. The yolk will be semi-soft in the center and the egg whites very firm.
- To get hard-boiled eggs, you have to remove them from boiling water after 10-15 minutes. The yolks will be completely hard. With this technique it is difficult to overcook them.
Step 5. Cool them immediately to stop cooking
As soon as the time you set for the consistency of the eggs has passed, gently drain them from the hot water. You can also use a skimmer. Put the eggs under cold running water or immerse them in a bowl of water and ice to quickly lower the temperature. Let them rest in cold water for 5 minutes.
- Once the eggs are cool enough to touch with your hands, place them in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to loosen the shells.
- If you're not very picky about perfectly shelled eggs, you can skip this step and start shelling them right away.
- To find out if an egg is firm without breaking it, rotate it on a table. If it runs quickly without any problems, then it's hard. If it sways, it needs to be cooked for longer.
Step 6. Shell the eggs when you are ready to eat them
Press them against a clean, flat surface and gently roll them with one hand to break the shell. Start removing it from the thickest part of the egg, where there should be a small empty space just below. This process makes the work much easier. Rinse the eggs under cold running water as you peel them to remove the membrane and small fragments that remain attached.
Tip for peeling eggs quickly: put them back in the pan you cooked them in and close it with the lid. Shake the pot vigorously to break all the shells in one go
Step 7. Store hard-boiled eggs in the refrigerator for up to 5 days
After peeling them, they are ready to eat. You can put the leftovers in a bowl covered with a plate or in an airtight container. In both cases, remember to protect the eggs with a damp paper towel, which you will need to change every day to prevent the eggs from drying out.
- You can also store eggs in cold water. Replace it every day if you don't want the eggs to rot.
- Hard-boiled eggs can be stored for several days after being broken and shelled, but they tend to become a little rubbery and dry. It would be better to place them in the refrigerator covered with damp kitchen paper or in a container of water.
Method 2 of 2: In the Microwave
Step 1. Heat the water to a boil in a microwave-safe bowl
The microwave oven is usually not as effective as the cooker for cooking hard-boiled eggs, but with a little patience you will still get good results. First you need to boil the water without the eggs. Follow the instructions in this link to boil water safely.
Remember that you do not have to microwave whole eggs that have not been beaten. Even if they have been removed from the shell, the eggs retain a lot of pressure, especially in the yolk, and can explode, damaging the oven.
Step 2. Remove the bowl from the oven and carefully add the eggs
Use a tea towel or oven mitt to remove it from the microwave; help yourself with a slotted spoon to put the eggs in the water one at a time. Make sure all the eggs are completely submerged.
Do not drop them directly into the water. Not only will they break when they hit the bottom, but they could also splash boiling water towards you
Step 3. Cover the bowl and let it rest
Once you have lowered the eggs into the water, cover the container with a plate or lid; at this point they will cook thanks to the heat that is close to that of boiling. Times vary according to the consistency you want to achieve. In general, you should calculate slightly longer times than those of the method on the stove, since in this case the eggs do not have the opportunity to cook as the water heats up.
- If you like barbecued eggs, leave them in the water for about 10 minutes or less. The yolk will be quite liquid.
- If you prefer medium-cooked ones, wait about 15 minutes. The yolk will be semi-soft and the egg whites quite firm.
- If you love well cooked eggs, wait at least 20 minutes or more. Both the egg white and the yolk will be completely hard, but the latter will not take on the unpleasant greenish color typical of overcooked eggs.
Step 4. Remove the eggs from the hot water and cool them as usual
When they have remained in the water for the desired time, you can "fish" them with a skimmer or a colander. Now all you have to do is proceed exactly as with boiled eggs on the stove:
- Put them under cold running water or in a bowl with water and ice for about 5 minutes, so as to cool them.
- When you can touch them, break them and peel them immediately or place them in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes to make the job of removing the shells easier.
- Store the eggs in the refrigerator, covered with damp kitchen paper, or in a container filled with water. Consume them within 4-5 days, changing the paper or water every day.
Troubleshooting
Step 1. If the egg yolks are green or grayish, reduce the cooking time
If you let the eggs boil for too long, a gray-green ring forms that smells of sulfur. Eggs are still perfectly edible, but if you find them unappetizing, next time just reduce the time you leave them in hot water.
- The color is caused by the reaction of the iron contained in the yolk with the hydrogen sulphide found in the egg white. This reaction occurs when the egg has finished cooking.
- Excess heat tends to coagulate the proteins and thus gives a rubbery consistency to the egg white and dries the yolk.
Step 2. If the egg is too liquid, increase the cooking time
If you don't apply enough heat, then you may end up with the opposite problem to the one described in the previous step. If it doesn't cook enough, the yolk may remain more liquid than you would like. Eggs that are too raw may also show egg whites that are not perfectly firm. If you notice that the first egg you shell is still undercooked, put the others back into the pot with boiling water.
- Uncooked eggs can potentially transmit a salmonella infection. It is advisable to eat them well cooked or to use pasteurized ones in raw recipes.
- As previously described, you can roll an egg on a hard surface to check that it is firm. If it rotates evenly, it is cooked. A semi-raw egg sways or rotates in a spiral on one side.
Step 3. For easy shelling of fresh eggs, steam them
When they are only a day or two old, the eggs have a membrane that sticks to the shell and makes it more difficult to remove the shell. The best eggs to boil are 7-10 days old eggs. However, if you need to cook the very fresh ones, then try steaming them to separate the membrane from the shell:
- Put them in a metal colander and place the latter on a saucepan. Inside this you will have poured 2-3 cm of water that you will bring to a boil. Rotate the eggs often and then boil them as usual.
- Some people add a teaspoon of baking soda to the boiling water if the eggs are very fresh. However, this "trick" gives it a slight sulfur flavor.
Step 4. If the eggs are difficult to shell, break them and put them in water
When you notice that the egg white remains stuck to the shell, roll the egg to create a network of small cracks on the surface. Then put it in a bowl with cold water and wait 5-10 minutes. This process helps the shell to separate from the membrane and makes work easier.
Step 5. If an egg breaks during cooking, add vinegar to the water
This is a fairly common problem, especially if the eggs are very cold. If you notice that one is broken, add a teaspoon of vinegar to the cooking water to help the egg white proteins to coagulate quickly and seal the opening. Try to be timely; if you act as soon as you notice the crack, the egg should still cook evenly.
You should notice a small amount of egg white coming out of the crack. If you don't add the vinegar in time, don't worry, the egg will still be cooked and edible, even if it will have a slightly funny shape
Advice
- If you are cooking white-shelled eggs, you can add onion skins (the brown part) to boiling water. In this way the shell is colored with a nice brown hue and you can at a glance distinguish the ones you have cooked from the raw ones.
- A teaspoon could prove useful in keeping the egg white intact while you shell an egg. Remove a small portion of the shell and membrane from the larger end, insert the teaspoon under the shell and the membrane with the concave part facing the egg white, then rotate the teaspoon and remove the pieces of shell.
- Some tasty ideas for presenting hard-boiled eggs are: deviled eggs, egg salad, burritos with eggs, salade niçoise and many more!
- When cooking eggs, make sure the water is at the boiling point. Leave them in boiling water for 12 minutes if they are large; 15 minutes if they are extra large.
- If you mix the eggs a couple of times while the water is about to boil, allow the yolk to center within the egg white and cook evenly.
- If you have to cut a hard-boiled egg in half, use the freshest one you can find, so you can be sure the yolk will stay in the center and won't have a greenish tint. Follow the tips in this article for shelling a fresh egg.
- You can add a little baking soda to the cooking water, break both ends of the egg (once hard), place your mouth on the thinner one and blow. After a few attempts, you will be able to get the perfectly shelled egg out on the other side!
- Allow the eggs to reach room temperature before placing them in the water to minimize the risk of breakage.
- Some recommend making a small hole with a pin in the wider end of the egg before boiling it, in order to let the air out and reduce the chances of it breaking. However, studies have shown that it is not a reliable technique.
Warnings
- If you use too much vinegar, the eggs will smell bad and taste like vinegar.
- Do not microwave whole eggs, they will explode. Instead, boil the water in the microwave and then add the eggs out of the appliance. You can also make poached eggs in the microwave using this technique.
- Be very careful with this, but also with all other preparations that require the use of boiling water. Protect your hands and face to avoid painful burns.
- Do not use broken eggs as they may contain bacteria.
