How to boil an egg (2024)

FAQs

How to boil an egg? ›

Method. Place the large egg in a small pan. Cover with at least 2.5cm (1") of cold water, add a pinch of salt and place the pan on a high heat. When the water is almost boiling, gently stir the egg, and boil it for between 3 to 8 minutes, depending on the softness or hardness of egg you require.

Put the pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot with the lid. Allow the eggs to sit in the hot water for the following times according to the desired doneness: 3 minutes for SOFT boiled; 6 minutes for MEDIUM boiled; 12 minutes for HARD boiled.

Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Then, let them sit in the hot water. As soon as the water begins to boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Leave the eggs in the hot water for anywhere from 10-12 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs.

You might have heard that you should drop your eggs into room temperature or cold water and then bring the water to a boil. This is a myth. In our tests, bringing the water to a boil first and then lowering the eggs into the bath made for easy peeling and more accurate timing.

Step 1: Find a pot that has a removable basket so you can fully submerge your eggs. Step 2: Bring a pot of water to a boil. Step 3: Place eggs in the boiling water (all eggs must be submerged) and adjust heat so that eggs simmer at a low boil for 20 minutes.

NEVER start cooking eggs in a pot of boiling water as this makes it highly likely that they'll crack before they're fully cooked. With leaked contents in the surrounding water, the eggs would be far from perfect. DO: Cooking hard-boiled eggs should always begin with cool water.

Lower the heat slightly – so the eggs don't crack due to being bashed around but water is still at a gentle boil. Start the timer – 6 minutes for runny yolks, 8 minutes for soft boiled, 10 minutes for classic hard boiled, 15 minutes for unpleasant rubbery whites and powdery dry yolks.

Egg white solidifies more quickly in hot, salty water than it does in fresh. So a little salt in your water can minimize the mess if your egg springs a leak while cooking. The egg white solidifies when it hits the salt water, sealing up the crack so that the egg doesn't shoot out a streamer of white.

The Spin. To test this popular trick, I laid both eggs on a smooth, flat surface and gave them a light spin. The boiled egg spun quickly, smoothly, and without any wobble.

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.

What happens if you boil eggs too long? ›

“When an egg is cooked for too long and/or at too high a temperature, the sulfur in the egg white combines with the iron in the yolk and creates ferrous sulfide, which has a green tint,” she explains. Unfortunately, this chemical reaction—which scientists call denaturation—isn't limited to hard-boiled eggs.

Before boiling the egg, prick the larger portion of the shell gently with a clean thumbtack or safety pin. This enables the trapped air bubbles, which are responsible for cracking, to escape during the boiling process, thus giving a perfectly cooked egg.

Use a pin to punch a small hole at the widest end of the egg. If you do not have a pin, a paring knife can be used by gently poking the egg shell with the tip and twisting the knife. The purpose of this step is to help air escape from the egg when cooking, resulting in a perfectly round shape.

Bring water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to moderately high and cook eggs at a gentle boil, uncovered, 10 minutes. Pour off hot water. If using eggs right away, shake pan gently so eggs bump into one another (to crack shells).