Don't you just hate when this happens? You're hard-boiling eggs to make deviled eggs, and when you peel them, you discover the yolks have clung to one side of the egg, leaving holes. Or, you peel the egg, and bits of the white come off. How do you keep this from happening? We'll tell you!
First of all, before you even cook the eggs, if you store the eggs tip-point down, this will center the yolk.
Now, when you cook them, cook them slowly! Place them in a pot of cold water and bring that to a boil, and once it reaches a rolling boil, turn the heat down to low and cover the pot. Halfway through the cooking time (7 minutes) roll the eggs over. This will help center the yolks.
When you're done cooking them, remove them to a bowl of ice water. This helps separate the egg membrane and the shells, making them easier to peel.
(Image: Kathryn Hill)
I have heard that storing the carton on its side overnight will also center the eggs.
For hard cooking, I place eggs in a pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Then, turn off the heat, cover and wait 13 minutes. Remove to ice water bath and peel. Perfectly cooked eggs, not rubbery.
Also - use fresh eggs to avoid the yucky green ring around the yolks. The green stuff is ferrous sulfide, and comes from iron in the yolk reacting with sulfur compounds that form when an egg ages.
view ilovebutter's profile
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the post a week or so ago about how to tell if the eggs that have been sitting in my fridge are still edible. Sometimes I have them in there for quite some time. I dropped them in a glass of water and *gasp* one floated! I threw it away promptly.
view kkf's profile
I am a cover with cold water, add salt, bring to boil, immediately remove from heat, cover, let stand for 10 minutes. 5 minutes in an ice bath, then peel, kind of girl.
Who knew all this about yolk position? Quite interesting.
view bobcatsteph3's profile
I bought a Cuisinart egg cooker and my hard boiled eggs are always perfect now. It was an impulse buy '-)
view Rain's profile
I love the 'tip point down' tip. Thanks!
view Farmgirl Susan's profile
bobcatsteph3, I do what you do, but add a splash of white vinegar to the water before cooking. I also just rinse the eggs with cold water after, we never seem to have enough ice around for an ice bath!
view mangosteen's profile
I do something that I read in Martha Stewart Magazine YEARS ago and it truly works! Take a straight pin and poke a tiny hole in the smaller end of the egg before boiling the eggs. I swear to goodness this works and no egg comes out of the hole. What it does is lets a tiny bit of water into the eggshell that prevents the shell from sticking to the egg white. I always do this now!
view robyn's profile
I hope I'm misreading that "halfway through the cooking time (7 minutes)". You can't mean to hard-boil eggs for 14 minutes, can you?
I like mine at the 5:30 mark, but for a fully solid yolk, no more than 7:00 total. (as noted above by bobcatsteph3: put eggs in cold water, bring to boil, immediately turn off the heat and cover and start your timers for 5:30.)
My mother KEEPS HERS ON THE BOIL for 15 minutes. This freaks me out. And also explains why I was not fond of hard-boiled eggs as a child.
view nadarine's profile
Great tip about the ice bath! We get our eggs from a friend's hens, so they're super-fresh, but also more liable to stick to the shell. Plunging them straight into ice water made a big difference this time!
I do think 14 minutes sounds like a really long time, though. The eggs we get vary in size, and some can be pretty big, but I find 10 for smaller and 12 for the biggest works best.
view SisterRae's profile
Yeah,as SisterRae mentioned, it's worth pointing out that fresher eggs arent better if you plan to boil them. Using week-old eggs (or even older) and an ice bath are the only tips I've needed for getting the peels off easily
Getting the yolks in the right place, though, I still cannot do.
view renata's profile
Wow..14 minutes is a long time?? I cook mine for 20-25 minutes, and they turn out perfect. Anything less than 20, and they're too soft and wet and gross.
view randomeater's profile