Title: How To Cook Eggs To Perfect 10
Categories: Egg Info
Yield: 1 Servings

No ingredients

A hard-cooked egg is an example of elegant simplicity in both colour and shape. Deep yellow plays on pure white; a perfect sphere sits near the centre of a polished oval.

The clean lines of hard-cooked egg cut in half are a pleasing counterpoint to a tumble of crisp summer greens. Yet cooking an egg perfectly is not always an easy task. Wrinkles on the surface, a dented end or a pitted surface caused by trying to peel a recalcitrant egg can easily spoil its impact.

Cracked shells are often a problem; egg white oozes through the crack, so that hardened wrinkles then mar the surface.

The best way to avoid cracking the shell is, before cooking, to place the eggs in a saucepan and cover them with lukewarm water. This elminates the rapid expansion of the air inside the shell that results when cold eggs hit boiling water.

Beginning with a moderate temperature, this allows the air in the egg to expand gradually. In fact, you can watch some air spiralling out in pinpoint bubbles from the pores at the larger end of the shell. Its escape elminates the buildup of pressure.

Bring the water to the boil, cover the saucepan, then remove it from the heat. Let the eggs bask in the hot water for 15-20 minutes, before cooling them under cold water.

When eggs are cooked at temperatures below the boiling point, they're tender. Eggs that have been boiled are rubbery because their proteins have been over-coagulated by temperatures that are too high.

Sometimes the air pocket at the wide end of the egg becomes enlarged, giving the solidified white a concave end. This happens because as an egg ages, its air pocket grows larger, taking up more space in the shell. A dented end results.

You can test an egg for freshness before cooking by submerging it in a bowl of water. The freshest eggs have only a small air pocket and sink to the bottom and lie on their sides. Older eggs will stand large-end up in the water. This kind of egg is better for baking where its final appearance isn't important.

Often you'll end up with a gouged surface when you try to peel a very fresh egg, because the membranes surrounding the white cling tightly to the shell. Peeling a fresh egg while it's still warm from cooking makes the shell considerably easier to remove.

If hard-cooked eggs are to be stored for several days, however, leave the shalls on.

Older eggs that are hard-cooked are easier to peel even when cold, because as eggs age, they become more alkaline, which reduces the grip between the membranes.

The Inquisitive Cook, The Gazette, June 5th, 1996

Personal observation: I keep a small tack near the stove to puncture the membrane-end of an egg before boiling. It helps when peeling the egg and prevents cracking.

Flo Thompson

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