Hard-Cooked Eggs
Maryellen Driscoll adapted
by Michael McCabe
Yield: 6 eggs
Notes:
Hard-Cooked Eggs
An egg with a perfectly creamy yolk, tender white,
and no green ring results from a simple bring-it-to-a-boil method.
The challenge: Hard-cooking an egg can be a
crapshoot. There’s no way to watch the proteins cook under the brittle shell of
an uncracked egg, and you certainly can't poke it with an instant-read
thermometer. The signs of the hard-cooked egg that has been left to sit in a
pot of boiling water for 20 minutes or more are all too familiar: rubbery
white, chalky yolk, and an off-green ring marrying the two. While undercooked
eggs seem to appear less often, they're mostly suitable for breakfast; certainly
not for egg salad. How, then, to consistently come up the perfectly hard-cooked
egg, with a moist and creamy yolk, a firm yet tender white, and no trace of an
unpleasantly green ring?
The solution: Our initial research revealed two
schools of thought on how to hard-cook and egg: (1) cover eggs with cold water
in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then lower to simmer and continue cooking
anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes; (2) place the eggs to cover in boiling water,
which is then lowered to a simmer, and continue to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes
more. Both methods suggest an ice water bath or a running faucet of cold water
to stop the eggs from cooking. After numerous experiments in which the cooking
time was adjusted, we got each of these methods to work. But the results would
be hard to replicate. Boiling is boiling, but people have different ideas about
the meaning of a simmer. Meanwhile, lowering eggs into boiling water is
something of a trial. At least one usually cracks.
We finally got our foolproof recipe by tinkering
just a little with a technique recommended by the American Egg Board: start the
eggs in cold water, bring the water to a boil, then remove the pan from the
heat and let the eggs sit for 15 minutes. Our tests brought the sitting time
down to 10 minutes, but our tasters agreed that these were perfectly cooked
eggs. And, best of all, the technique worked every time in all sorts and sizes
of pan. That green ring was nowhere to be seen.
For good measure: The appearance of a green ring
around the yolk of a cooked egg is a sign of excessive or prolonged heat. Under
such conditions, the iron in the yolk reacts with the sulfur in the white to
produce ferrous sulfide, which shows itself by discoloring the egg. High iron
levels in household tap water can also promote discoloring because water seeps
into the egg during boiling.
FOOLPROOF BOILED EGGS
Makes 6 eggs
You may double or triple this recipe as long as you
use a pot large enough to hold the eggs in a single layer, covered by an inch
of water.
Categories: Boiled, Egg
Source: March, 1999 issue of
Cook's Illustrated
Copyright: 2000
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Software
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6 large eggs
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Hardware
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medium saucepan
medium bowl
1 quart water
1 tray ice cubes
slotted spoon
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Place eggs in medium saucepan, cover with 1
inch of water, and bring to boil over high heat. Remove pan from heat, cover,
and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a medium bowl with 1 quart water
and 1 tray of ice cubes (or equivalent). Transfer eggs to ice water bath with
slotted spoon; let sit 5 minutes. Peel and use as desired, or proceed with one
of the salad recipes (see Classic Egg Salad).
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