Hard-cooking eggs is so easy! Or is it?
From
Beverly Mills
| July 29, 2009
In Kitchen Basics
To hard-boil eggs, place them in a pot and add enough cold water to just cover the tops. Salt the water well to make peeling easier, and bring the water to a boil.
At this point, two methods will work. You can continue to boil the eggs, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on their size. 
But I prefer the way my mother, a former home economics teacher, does it.
When the water boils, continue to cook the eggs uncovered for 3 minutes. Then simply cover the pot, remove it from the heat, and let the pot sit for 20 minutes or until you get around to remembering it. I've been cooking eggs this way for 20 years, and you'll get a perfectly hard-boiled egg every time.
I’ve heard complaints over the years that hard-cooking eggs this way causes the outermost part of the yolk to darken, and I guess that’s true. But for me it’s a worthy tradeoff not to have to stand there and time the cooking. So how do you like to hard-cook eggs?
Comments
From Maria M. - July 30, 2009
Vegenaise is a vegan mayo. It's a good product and I use it for some of hubby's sandwiches.
From Jim Viall - July 30, 2009
Hi Beverly, I'm new to your web-site. Just a little comment. There are hard boiled eggs and then there are "hard boiled eggs". The perfect HB egg has no darkening around the yoke, is solid but not rubbery. the two methods I've used over the years are: the pin hole and my favorite, place in cold salted water, bring to a boil then simmer uncovered for 12 min for mediums, 15 for large, & 18 for extra large. Rinse under cold water(twice)and your good to go. I take my digital timer and just put it in my pocket(don't have to watch them then). One last bit; if your eggs are not very fresh they have a tendancy tend to darken around the yoke too, so when you place them in the cold water look to see if they are standing up on end. If so your egg(s) aren't fresh. Fresh eggs lay on their side. PS; sounds strange but no one has disproved it..yet. Thanks, Jim
From richard - August 02, 2009
Obviously, there are many ways to boil eggs. The bottom line is what works best for you. I use a bulletin board, stick pin (the ones with the colored, plastic tops)to puncture the bottom/big end of the egg, cover eggs with cold water in a sauce pan, add 1 teaspoon salt and slowly bring to a boil for 4-5 minutes. Remove pan from heat source, cover sauce pan to continue cooking for about 15 minutes. Cool by running cold water into pan then adding ice and let stand for about 10 minutes. The result is eggs cool enough to eat and to work with for slicing ,chopping, etc.
From Mary B. - August 18, 2009
This works for me: use heavy pan with tight-fitting lid. To Cook: place eggs in *cool water to cover. Bring to boil; cover pan IMMEDIATELY and remove from heat. Let stand 25 min. Rinse in cold water and peel immediately or: To Peel: Drain, Rattle eggs in metal pan to thoroughly crack shells. Shells will fall off! Perfectly peeled eggs w/completely yellow yolks. Sometimes I let the eggs stand in the cold water for 5-10 minutes before rattling them. *I add some cider vinegar to the water not sure why except that's what my mother always did...
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Not sure...I haven't looked anywhere else, but Whole Foods has 4 or 5 different "flavors/kinds" to choose from...I just bought the basic...but let me know what you find out.