Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Great Hardboiled Easter Egg Experiment Results

If you follow me on my Facebook page, you know that I sent out a plea on how to hardboil Easter eggs so that the shell comes off easily. Thankfully there were lots of responses, and surprisingly a lot of them held the same advice. Except one really stood out--one that guaranteed the shell wouldn't stick. I was all over that.

So here's what I did. I boiled eggs two ways. Traditional and what I called the "rolling boil method."

Ingredients:
12 eggs divided into two batches of six
cold water--enough to cover the eggs by one inch
lots of salt added to the boiling water

Traditional method:
Put eggs in pan, cover with cold water, add salt. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, let sit for 15 minutes. Then put eggs in ice cold water for 5 more minutes.

Rolling boil method:
Bring cold water to a rolling boil, add eggs carefully using a slotted spoon. Let boil for seven minutes. Remove from heat. For the sake of having similar controls, I also put these eggs in an ice bath for five minutes.

RESULTS:

Traditional method:
Pros: Eggs are cooked perfectly.
Con: That darn eggshell was still hard to get off. I mauled a few eggs trying.

Rolling boil method:
Pros: The shell came right off. Easy-peasy (much happiness here!!!)
Con: The yolk was only soft-cooked. Not appealing at all. Blech.

Soooooo...next time I hardboil eggs, I will do the rolling method and cook the eggs longer. Hopefully, that won't affect the eggshells coming off easily. I'll be sure to report back (I know you'll be waiting with bated breath! LOL.).

It's a stimulating life I lead, I tell ya.

~Heather

5 comments:

  1. I wonder if you boil for 15 minutes would the shell come off easy and the yolk be perfect.

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  2. I'm no help with this. I don't eat eggs. I hope your next eggstravagnza goes well!

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  3. We always put warm water on room temperature eggs and brought to a boil, let them boil 10 minutes. Then turn them off and plunge into an ice bath after they sat 5 minutes. We kept adding more cool water as necessary. It's worked mostly unless I use older eggs (not bought within that week). Sounds like you found a keeper though.

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  4. I always thought it was the cold water aftershock that made eggs easy to shell rather than the boiling method. Hmmm. May have to test this one myself.

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  5. Dru, next time that's what I'm going to try! Though that won't be for a while. Sick of eggs. LOL.

    Thanks, Sarita!

    Kissablesweet, I'm not sure it's a keeper yet. I'm on the right track though, I think.

    Linda, this was the first I'd heard of the cold water bath, but everyone recommended it. Let me know how your experiment goes!

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