How to cook a hard boiled egg – really its not that difficult

Digital News Report

Digital News Report – While cooking a hard boiled egg doesn’t seem that problematic, there are a few ways to get it perfect. Sometimes you can under-cook the egg, and you can even overcook eggs too. Plus there is an easy way to get the egg shell to peel easily from the egg white. Here are a few tips and instructions on how to cook a hard boiled egg.

Instructions on How to cook a Hard Boiled Egg

First, you want to get a single layer of eggs on the bottom of a pot. If you stack multiple layers your have more chances of having cracked egg shells. If you have a lot of eggs to cook you might want to use several pots instead of piling them all in one.

Next, you need to add water to cover the eggs. To be precise, cover the eggs with 1 inch of water on top of them. Then measure out 1 tablespoon of cooking vegetable oil and put it in the water. That cooking oil works to keep the egg shell from sticking onto the egg white when you peel it.

After you have done the first two steps, then you can put it on the stove top and cook it on medium heat. Make sure to cover with a lid. Notice that the eggs and water are cool when they start you don’t want to boil the water and add the eggs into boiling water. You will want to have the water reach a rolling boil along with the eggs.

The boiling time for most people is between 8 and 10 minutes once the water starts boiling. This is the tricky part however; the boiling time for a hard boiled egg all depends upon the elevation levels. If you live where the elevation is over 3,000 feet, most cook books consider this high altitude cooking meaning it will take longer to cook the hard boiled egg because the water temperature is not as hot as if it was at lower elevations. The USDA says that even at 2,000 feet elevation the boiling water temperature is 4 degrees less in temperature that a sea level. See the chart below explaining the temperatures of boiling water at different altitudes.

If you cook the egg too long your will have rubbery texture to the egg yolk and get a grey color on the outside of the egg yolk. The gray coloring is harmless and you can eat the egg just the same, it just doesn’t look as appetizing. If you cook the egg too little you have the runny egg yolk.

Getting to know your times for boiling an egg to the right amount of time might take a couple trial runs, especially if you live in high altitudes. But once you know how long it has to boil, set your timer and you are on your way to having a great hard boiled egg. That way you will get your egg boiled right every time.

After the egg is done boiling run it under the faucet water in the sink for several minutes to cool it down. Then you can add ice to the eggs to cool them quicker. Next step is to put the hard boiled eggs in the refrigerator to cool the rest of the way. You shouldn’t let the hard boiled eggs sit out too long.

After your eggs have cooled they are ready to be colored for Easter, or you are ready to peel them. Tap the bottom of the egg that has the larger curve, and then tap the sides on the table. Start peeling at the bottom of the egg were the air bubble is inside, then work your way around to remove the egg shell. Rinse the eggs with water to remove any little pieces of egg shells.

Other ways to get an egg hard cooked

Now there is another method called hard cooked eggs. This method has you get the water up to a boil and then once the water boils, remove it from the heat and let sit in the hot water between 15 – 20 minutes. This will finish cooking the egg to be hard-cooked. This however, can be better at lower altitudes, as it is difficult to cook the egg this way if the water does not get hot enough.

Still another method to cook a hard boiled egg is with an small appliance designed specifically for the task of cooking an egg in a shell. This takes out a lot of the guess work of cooking the egg to the right consistency. These egg cookers are great if you love your eggs to be soft cooked and don’t want to mess it up.

By Victoria Brown