January 30, 2018

How To’sday: How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs

DIY, Easy!, Eggs, How To, Tutorial 1 Comment

So here’s the gods honest truth: I used to boil the ever-loving crap out of eggs. To be fair, Easter was about the only time we ever boiled them growing up. After we’d dyed them, peeled them to reveal the tie-dyed ellipses beneath, and mixed the yolks with a generous amount of mustard and Miracle Whip (an ingredient I’ll defend to the death when making Deviled Eggs), the gray-green, sulfury halo around the yolks didn’t really seem to matter much.

On the rare occasions that I ate straight-up, un-deviled hard boiled eggs, I only ate the whites. And small wonder! I was, however, flummoxed: how come the yolks in some store-bought eggs looked so, well, appetizing? I decided to actually look up a recipe, and what do you know: other people have already figured this out. But since I was TWENTY-NINE before I actually learned to do this right, I thought you guys might want some tips too. The big secret? Hard boiled eggs don’t actually need to boil for more than a moment.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Get some eggs. Fresh eggs are the hardest to peel, so this is a great way to use up the end of an older batch.

2. Place the eggs in a single layer in a pot large enough to accommodate them. Cover the eggs with at least an inch of water.

3. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat. (You’re probably won’t be as foamy as this… one of my eggs broke early in the process, which makes a big ugly foamy mess.)

4. Once the water comes to a full boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot. Leave the pot on the burner (I have a glasstop stove, so I put the pot half off the burner since those suckers NEVER cool down) and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your eggs and how hard you want the yolk. I want my yolks to be solid, and I generally use large to extra large eggs, so the full 15 minutes works for me. If you are nervous about going to far, boil an extra egg so you can check one after 10 or 12 minutes. I can think of worse things to do with 70 calories.

5. Drain the hot water off the eggs and add cold water to the pot, along with a big handful of ice cubes. You’ll want to wait until the eggs are completely cool before peeling.

6. Peel the eggs. Eat the eggs. Love the eggs!