Making the perfect hard boiled eggs can be a bit of a challenge until you find a trusty method. This is how my mama taught me, and it works every time. I always seem to forget the exact timing, so I look it up in my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook — it explains every basic cooking task you could ever need. The one I use is no longer in print, but any of her basic cookbooks should have this information.
Yesterday I was making egg salad for lunch, and I thought maybe I’m not the only one who has to look up how to hard boil eggs every time. So I thought I’d share it with you. And if I’m smart, I’ll print it out and paste it inside my kitchen cabinet so I don’t have to go hunting it down in my cookbook every time.
How to Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
- Place your eggs in a saucepan.
- Fill it with water enough to completely cover the eggs.
- Put it on your stove top and turn the burner to medium-high. Do NOT cover them.
- Slowly bring the water to a rolling boil.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Cover.
- Set your timer for 16 minutes and leave ‘em alone. Do not let them sit for more than 18 minutes, or they will be overcooked and get that greenish color around the yolk. Ewwwww.
- At the 16 minute mark, fill a glass bowl with ice water — go heavy on the ice.
- With a slotted spoon, carefully remove the eggs from the hot water and place them in the icy water. If the ice melts, add more.
- Once the eggs are totally cold (at least 20 minutes), remove them one at a time from the pan.
- Roll an egg around on the counter, banging it gently on all sides so the shell gets cracked all over. Gently remove the shell from the egg white, run it under cold water to get any little particles of shell off, dry it with a paper towel, and place it in the fridge until you’re ready to eat it or cook with it.
Voila! The perfectly cooked hard boiled egg!
Stay tuned for a post about how to make the perfect egg salad!
Interesting. I have always boiled them for 7 minutes and then put them in cold water to cool down. I never realized there were actual directions for this!!
Place it in the cabinet, brilliant! I look it up every single time too. I like to peel them under running water too, makes it a little easier, sometimes.
So happy to have found you and your blog today! Thank you for emailing me. Love your blog and what a great post on how to boil eggs…very useful as it’s so hard to determine when they’re done!
xo
Definitely a fav of mine! Love your blogs! I also found that if you add salt to the water it helps the peeling process.
This is the way I prefer my hard-boiled eggs. But, can you believe it, my husband actually LIKES them overdone and greenish in the middle? Every time I make him “perfect” hard-boiled eggs, he complains. But if I leave them in the water for half an hour (or more!) he’s happy,
The good news is, I don’t really like hard-boiled eggs that much, anyway. So I usually just make him his gross eggs, and eat something else myself!
That is hilarious!
I usually just use running cold water. Never used ice. need to try that
I am a very inconsistent hard boiled egg maker. My shells usually stick like crazy, which drives me crazy! THANK YOU for this!
Yeah, I find that if I crack the shell all around, it comes off a lot easier. And they have to be really cold.
Wow! I always did 12 minutes and then placed them in cold water & ice to cool down after but sometimes the shell doesn’t crack very well and it gets part of the egg – I’m trying a little bit longer next time via your instructions and maybe they will turn out a little better!
I, too, have a hard time being consistent in the way I cook my hard boiled eggs. I have one or two directions printed out but they’re totally different from each other and one of them is too “cryptic” for me. So I’m glad you posted this. I tried this today and it was pretty easy to follow. Although, my eggs still didn’t turn out “perfect” as it should but I’m quite satisfied. I was just stumped with step 4 when it said rolling boil. I realized I never really know the meaning of it. What’s a rolling boil? What does it look like? Sorry, I’m a novice cook.
Good question! A rolling boil is just a nice, full boil. You don’t want it popping up and spilling over the sides of the pan, but it needs to be going good. (There is probably a more technical definition, lol.)
Okay, here we go! http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-rolling-boil.htm
There are also videos showing it if you google “what is a rolling boil?”
I am definitely going to try this. I love egg salad and hard boiled eggs on my salads but peeling eggs frustrates me to no end because half the egg white comes off with the shell. Seriously, I almost want to say bad words and I don’t say bad words:o) looking forward to seeing if this works for me. THANKS!!!!