Cooklng Basics: Boiling an egg

I grew up with a Sicilian grandmother who cooked so well that I never felt the need to learn. I was then briefly married to a man who did all the cooking.

So some time in my late 20s when I found myself cooking for the first time, I read a recipe which  called for me to boil water. "OK, I know the water is all bubbly when it's boiling, but how do I know when it's done boiling?" I asked my grandmother on the phone. After a long silence (I think she was shocked at how a college educated woman could be so stupid), she walked me through the recipe.

I think I've advanced a bit from those days.

One of the things I took a long time to get right was boiling eggs. Not just  boiling...I figured that part out fairly early on. But getting the time just right for the different degrees of doneness from ramen soft boiled to egg salad hard boiled. It's a delicate distinction .

So over the years, this is the foolproof method of cooking eggs I have developed.

1. Bring a pot (with enough water to cover the eggs by about an inch) to a rolling boil (212°F).
2. Reduce the heat to low and gently lower the eggs into the water. (Reducing the heat to low keeps the eggs from bouncing around in the bubbles.) Then, turn the heat back up to high.
3. Immediately set your timer  for the hardness level you need (based on the chart below).
4. Once the eggs have cooked the desired amount of time, scoop them out and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice water. This stops the cooking and ensures texture is just right.

I trade the neighbor across the street a small loaf of homemade bread for a dozen eggs laid by his free-ranging hens. They are the most delicious eggs but they are smaller than the large eggs from the market and the shells are thicker and harder to peel. 

And they are, obviously, fresher...sometimes still warm when they are delivered. Fresher eggs take about 30 seconds to a minute longer to reach the desired doneness so take freshness into account when setting your timer.

When your eggs are properly, the whites are smooth and firm. The yolks should be bright with no green around the outside (a sign that it's been overcooked). 

It might take a few tries to get things exactly to your liking but they always say, "you have to crack a lot of eggs to see if you boiled them right." (or something like that!")