Egg

Nutrition

Place the eggs in a saucepan and cover with water.
Season with a pinch of salt.
Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a boil.
Cook for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and cover with a lid.
Allow the eggs to sit for 11 minutes.
Drain and cool the eggs for 2 minutes in ice water.
Drain and peel the eggs.
Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse, 1999

Egg Size	Degree of Doneness	Time Required
Medium	Soft-cooked yolk	3 minutes
	Medium-cooked yolk	5 minutes
	Hard-cooked yolk	12 minutes

Large	Soft-cooked yolk	4 to 5 minutes
	Medium-cooked yolk	6 minutes
	Hard-cooked yolk	17 minutes

Extra Large	Soft-cooked yolk	5 minutes
	Medium-cooked yolk	7 to 8 minutes
	Hard-cooked yolk	19 minutes

How To Make Perfect Boiled Eggs Recipe:

Boiling an egg is really very simple! After reading many different opinions about the best method for making perfect hard-cooked (boiled) eggs, I have discovered, through my own personal testing, the following easy method which gives great results. This way of cooking is also known as "coddling." It does not toughen the whites as boiling does. This will also assist with the peeling process, as the cold water creates steam between the egg white and the shell which makes the shell easier to remove.
Recipe Type: Eggs
Yields: serves many
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 17 min
Ingredients:
Eggs (3 to 5 days old), room temperature
Water
Preparation:

1. For perfect cooking, start with eggs that don't have any visible cracks:
There are two problems you'll want to avoid: cracked shells and the ugly green layer that can form around the yolk.
Do not add salt to water. The salt will raise the boiling point of the water making the egg whites rubbery.

2. The best eggs for boiling are NOT the freshest eggs - use eggs that are at least 3 to 5 days: Eggs that are too fresh are difficult to peel. The fresher the eggs, the harder it will be to peel them because the white membrane is just not mature enough. Hard boiling farm fresh eggs will invariably lead to eggs that are difficult to peel. Eggs need to be at least three (3) days old to peel well. First, figure out if your eggs are fresh, because looking at the date on the carton is not always the best indicator of freshness, as eggs within the same carton with the same sell-by-date could have been laid on different days. Check out Sell Date of Eggs.
In a fresh egg, the yolk stands tall and the white is thick and cloudy. In an older egg, the yolk looks flatter and breaks easily, and the white is thin and watery.
The best eggs for boiling are the ones on their way to standing up because that extra air makes peeling easier. That's why you should buy eggs for hard-cooking at least a week ahead of time.
How To Test Freshness of Eggs: A simple test in water will answer the freshness question for you. Place the egg in a bowl of water; if it lies on its side, it is very fresh. As it ages, the air pocket inside the egg grows, which buoys the egg up so it stands on one end. If the egg floats to the top, it is ready for the trash. Making Deviled Eggs: When making deviled eggs, place the carton of eggs on its side for a day. The yolk will then center itself so you have it directly in the middle of the white. No more off centered deviled eggs.

3. Bring your eggs to room temperature before cooking: If the egg has been stored in the refrigerator, it can be warmed gently under a flowing hot tap water or sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.
By bringing the eggs to room temperature, they're much less likely to crack in the hot water. Also the temperature of the egg at the start of the cooking process will affect the cooking time.

An egg that is at room temperature at the start of the cooking process will require about 1 minute less cooking time than eggs taken directly from the refrigerator.

4. Technique for hard-cooking (boiled) eggs: Choose the right size pot to cook your eggs in: The eggs must not be stacked but be in one (1) layer only. Gently place The simple and classic boiled egg - full of nature’s most perfect form of protein. It used to be that people were scared of eating eggs because of the cholesterol in the egg yolks. Now research has found that eggs also raise the good cholesterol that bodies need. the eggs in a single layer in a pan with enough cold water to cover eggs completely (approximately by 1 inch of water over the top of the eggs).
Too much water will take too long for the water to get boiling, which can throw off the timing and give you overcooked eggs. Too little water causes parts of the eggs to be exposed and end up undercooked.

If you have 2 or 3 layers of eggs stacked up in a small pot, they may cook unevenly. Use a large pan and limit cooking to two (2) dozen eggs at a time only. Over high heat, bring water JUST to a rapid boil.
As soon as the water reaches a rapid boil, remove pan from heat and cover egg pan tightly with a lid. Set timer for 17 minutes for large eggs or 20 minutes for jumbo eggs.
After 17 or 20 minutes (depending on size of your eggs), remove lid and drain off water from the eggs.

Watch the time when cooking the eggs carefully. Overcooking causes a green layer to form around the yolk. This layer is caused by a reaction between the iron in the yolk and the sulfur in the white. Heat speeds up this reaction, so the longer your eggs cook, the greater the chance of discoloration. IMPORTANT - Stop the cooking process - Residual Heat or "Carry Over Heat." After the eggs are removed from the heat source, some cooking will continue, particularly the yolk of the egg. This is due to residual heat called “carry over cooking.” For this reason, transfer the eggs to the bowl of ice cubes and/or cold water after the cooking time is over. While they're in the cold water, a layer of steam develops between the shell and the egg white. The steam helps make peeling an egg much easier.
Let eggs cool at least 10 minutes in cold water, then drain. Either store in refrigerator or peel the eggs (see below for How To Peel Hard-Cooked Eggs Easily).
A quick test to ensure that your eggs are hardboiled: When eggs have cooled, spin them on a hard surface (just like you would spin a top). If the eggs spins quickly without taking off or flying off in one direction, the egg is hard boiled and finished. Undercooked eggs (or uncooked eggs) will have a wobbly and unsteady spin. Info & Table as on Boiled Eggs - Whats Cooking America. Nice details!

Boiled egg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Boiled eggs
Closeup of a hard boiled egg
A boiled egg, presented in an eggcup

Boiled eggs are eggs (typically chicken eggs) cooked by immersion in boiling water with their shells unbroken. (Eggs cooked in water without their shells are known as poached eggs, while eggs cooked below the boiling temperature, either with or without the shell, are known as coddled eggs.) Hard-boiled eggs are either boiled long enough for the egg white and then the egg yolk to solidify, or they are left in hot water to cool down, which will gradually solidify them, while a soft-boiled egg yolk, and sometimes even the white, remains at least partially liquid.

The egg timer was so-named due to its common usage in timing the boiling of eggs. Boiled eggs are a popular breakfast food in many countries around the world.

Contents

1 Variations

2 Soft-boiled eggs

2.1 The Blumenthal method

2.2 Serving

3 Hard-boiled eggs

3.1 Peeling

4 See also

5 Notes

6 References

7 External links

Variations

There are variations both in desired doneness and in the method of how eggs are boiled, and a variety of kitchen gadgets for eggs exist. These variations include:

Baked eggs

Baking eggs in an oven instead of boiling in water. Baked eggs (350 °F (177 °C) for 1/2 hour in a muffin tin, cool in ice water) are identical to boiled eggs but the shells peel easier.
Starting temperature

Room temperature (for more even cooking and to prevent cracking) or from a refrigerator; eggs may be left out overnight to come to room temperature.
Preparation

Some pierce the eggs beforehand with an egg piercer to prevent cracking. There is much debate on this subject. Ekelund[who?] et al. in Why eggs should not be pierced claimed that pricking caused egg white proteins to be damaged and was therefore to be discouraged. Others recommend against this, or add vinegar to the water (as is sometimes done with poached eggs) to prevent the white from billowing in case of cracking. For this purpose, table salt can also be used.
Placing in water

There are various ways to place the eggs in the boiling water and removing: one may place the eggs in the pan prior to heating, lower them in on a spoon, or use a specialized cradle to lower them in. A cradle is also advocated as reducing cracking, since the eggs do not then roll around loose. To remove, one may allow the water to cool, pour off the boiling water, or remove the cradle.
Steaming

Eggs are taken straight from the refrigerator and placed in the steamer at full steam. The eggs will not crack due to sudden change in temperatures. At full steam, "soft-boiled" eggs are ready in 6 minutes, "hard-boiled" eggs at 8 minutes. As the eggs are cooked by a steam source, there is no variation of water temperature and hence cooking time, no matter how many eggs are placed in the steamer.
Cooking time

There is substantial variation, with cooking time being the primary variable affecting doneness (soft-boiled vs. hard-boiled). It usually varies from 15–17 minutes for large hard-boiled eggs, 1–4 minutes for large soft-cooked eggs and 12 minutes for the best results. Depending on altitude above sea level and humidity densities in a given climate, one may require extended amounts of time to reach the soft-boiled stage, and in fact, may never reach a fully hard stage.
Cooking temperature

In addition to cooking at a rolling boil (at 100 °C (212 °F)), one may instead add the egg before a boil is reached, remove water from heat after a boil is reached, or attempt to maintain a temperature below boiling, the latter all variants of coddling.
Cooling

After eggs are removed from heat, some cooking continues to occur, particularly of the yolk, due to residual heat, a phenomenon called carry over cooking, also seen in roast meat. For this reason some allow eggs to cool in air or plunge them into cold water as the final stage of preparation. If time is limited, adding a few cubes of ice will quickly reduce the temperature for easy handling.
Service

Boiled eggs may be served loose, in an eggcup, in an indentation in a plate (particularly a presentation platter of deviled eggs), cut with a knife widthwise, cut lengthwise, cut with a knife or tapped open with a spoon at either end, or peeled (and optionally sliced, particularly if hard-boiled, either manually or with an egg slicer).

Soft-boiled eggs
Boiled eggs, increasing in boiling time from left to right
See also: Shirred eggs
The Blumenthal method

Chef Heston Blumenthal, after "relentless trials", published a formula for "the perfect boiled egg" that explains how much water to use, how much time to cook and how much time to rest the egg.

Soft-boiled eggs are not recommended for people who may be susceptible to salmonella, such as very young children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems. To avoid the issue of salmonella, eggs can be pasteurised in shell at 57C for an hour and 15 minutes. The eggs can then be soft-boiled as normal.
Serving

Soft-boiled eggs are commonly served in egg cups, where the top of the egg is cut off with a knife, spoon, spring-loaded egg topper, or egg scissors, using a teaspoon to scoop the egg out. Other methods include breaking the eggshell by tapping gently around the top of the shell with a spoon. Soft-boiled eggs can be eaten with toast cut into strips, which are then dipped into the runny yolk. In the United Kingdom and Australia, these strips of toast are known as "soldiers".

In Southeast Asia, especially countries like Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, a variation of soft-boiled eggs known as half-boiled eggs are commonly eaten at breakfast. The major difference is that, instead of the egg being served in an egg cup, it is cracked into a bowl to which dark or light soy sauce and/or pepper are added. The egg is also cooked for a shorter period of time resulting in a runnier egg instead of the usual gelatin state and is commonly eaten with Kaya toast.

Boiled eggs are also an ingredient in various Philippine dishes, such as embutido, pancit, relleno, galantina, and many others.

In Japan, soft-boiled eggs are commonly served alongside ramen. The eggs are typically steeped in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, and water after being boiled and peeled. This provides the egg a brownish color that would otherwise be absent from boiling and peeling the eggs alone. Once the eggs have finished steeping, they are served either in the soup or on the side.
Hard-boiled eggs
Egg slicers are used to slice hard-boiled eggs.

Hard-boiled eggs are boiled for longer than soft-boiled eggs, long enough for the yolk to solidify. They can be eaten warm or cold. Hard-boiled eggs are the basis for many dishes, such as egg salad, Cobb salad and Scotch eggs, and may be further prepared as deviled eggs.

Hard-boiled eggs are commonly sliced, particularly for use in sandwiches. For this purpose specialized egg slicers exist, to ease slicing and yield even slices.

There are several theories as to the proper technique of hard-boiling an egg. One method is to bring water to a boil and cook for ten minutes. Another method is to bring the water to a boil, but then remove the pan from the heat and allow eggs to cook in the gradually cooling water. Over-cooking eggs will typically result in a thin green iron(II) sulfide coating on the yolk. This reaction occurs more rapidly in older eggs as the whites are more alkaline.
Immersing the egg in cold water after boiling is a common method of halting the cooking process to prevent this effect. It also causes a slight shrinking of the contents of the egg.

Hard-boiled eggs should be used within two hours if kept at room temperature or can be used for a week if kept refrigerated and in the shell.
Peeling

Hard-boiled eggs can vary widely in how easy it is to peel away the shells. In general, the fresher an egg before boiling, the more difficult it is to separate the shell cleanly from the egg white. As a fresh egg ages, it gradually loses both moisture and carbon dioxide through pores in the shell; as a consequence, the contents of the egg shrink and the pH of the albumen becomes more basic. Albumen with higher pH (more basic) is less likely to stick to the egg shell, while pockets of air develop in eggs that have lost significant amounts of moisture, also making eggs easier to peel. Adding baking soda to the boiling water can help make it easier to peel the eggs. Keeping the cooked eggs soaked in water helps keep the membrane under the egg shell moisturized for easy peeling. Peeling the egg under running water is another effective method of removing the shell. Starting the cooking in hot water also makes the egg easier to peel.Another method: after plunging the eggs in cold water when they're done, place them back in the hot water they were boiled in for 20 seconds, then return them to the cold water. The theory is that the shells expand and contract, loosening their bond.

Boiled Eggs Wikipedia