With egg prices on the rise, it's more important than ever to get the cooking times right when boiling eggs. Luckily, I did this research many years ago. The principles still apply.
Whether you like them soft-boiled or hard boiled, this recipe explains all the factors involved in making perfectly boiled eggs for your setup. As a bonus, I've also tested several methods of making eggs easier to peel and have come up with the best method for peeling boiled eggs.
If you've ever boiled an egg you've probably run into problems at one time or another. Two challenges generally arise: cooking the egg and peeling the egg. You might have found your eggs under/overcooked, or when you tried to peel the egg it ended up looking like the surface of the moon.
The good news is that both of these problems are easily resolved with a little understanding of the science of eggs. Read on and you'll be boiling expertly oval eggs whether you're going for a perfect hard boiled egg or a gooey soft cooked one.
Jump to:
- How to Choose Eggs
- Setting Temperatures of Yolks and Albumen
- How Do You Cook the Perfect Boiled Egg?
- Boiled Egg Variables
- How Many Minutes for Hard-boiled Eggs? How Many Minutes for Soft-boiled eggs?
- What's The Best Way to Peel an Egg?
- Recipes Using Boiled Eggs
- Master Other Perfect Eggs
- Recipe
- Perfect Boiled Eggs
- Comments
How to Choose Eggs
As with most things, the quality of the ingredients will determine the quality of the results, so start with the best quality eggs you can afford. You won't remember the extra dollar you spent when you see that perfect jammy egg on your plate. And well-fed chickens produce tastier eggs with thicker shells that are easier to peel.
Another thing to consider when selecting an egg is the color of the yolk. Chickens that feast on a diet rich in beta carotene (red chili peppers, marigolds, etc.) lay eggs with strikingly orange yolks. In a blind tasting, you won't be able to taste the difference, but the visual impact makes most people feel like the eggs taste better. Some U.S. grocery chains are marketing eggs with darker yolks, so look for those if you want results that look like mine.
My method will make any egg easier to peel, but starting with older eggs gives you a head start. When peeling an egg, you remove two layers, including a hard shell and a thin inner membrane. In a freshly laid egg, the membrane is tightly adhered to the albumin (egg white), and you can see this if you break open a raw egg and the egg white sticks to the shell. As an egg ages, albumin loses CO2, which raises its pH and makes it thinner. This is bad for dishes like poached eggs, where you want the egg white to hold together in the water, but it's good for boiled eggs because it's not able to adhere to the soft membrane, making it easier to peel. The downside of using older eggs is that they also tend to have a bigger air pocket inside, which gives the boiled eggs a big crater on one side after you've boiled and peeled them.
Finally, you want to look for eggs that are similar in size. In grocery stores, eggs are usually sorted by size and labeled, so you don't have to think about this too much, but if you raise chickens or you get your eggs from a farm stand, it's worth remembering that different-sized eggs will take different amounts of time to cook.
Setting Temperatures of Yolks and Albumen
Egg yolks set at a much lower temperature than egg whites (70 degrees C vs 80 degrees C). Since the heat source (boiling water) is outside the egg, it cooks from the outside in. In theory, this means that by the time yolk is set, the white has also reached its higher setting temperature.
Since the boiling water is much hotter than the setting temperature of the egg, it's very easy to zoom past the desired temperature. Because the temperature is rising so fast, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when to stop the cooking to get the egg exactly how you like it, whether you're going for runny yolks or firm yolks.
The problem with most boiled egg instructions is that they create a formula (put eggs in cold water, bring to boil, boil for X minutes) assuming you put the exact same size and temperature of egg into the same amount of water in the same pan on the same stove… Well, you get the idea.
How Do You Cook the Perfect Boiled Egg?
The best way to figure out what works for your setup is to boil a dozen eggs and start pulling the eggs out of the water in thirty-second increments after about 3 minutes. But who wants to waste that many eggs? Well, luckily I have a friend that farms eggs and I've been busy experimenting in my lab to come up with an (almost) foolproof method of boiling eggs.
Since the main problem with boiling an egg is the narrow window of time during which the egg is perfect, I asked myself how I could slow the cooking down to expand that window of perfection. I found my answer in the way I cook my chicken for chicken soup
This is how I adapted the technique for eggs. Put refrigerated eggs in a heavy bottomed pot and cover with cold tap water so they're covered by about 1" (2.5cm) of water. Bring the water to a full boil (100 degrees C) over high heat, and then remove the pot from the heat. Let the eggs cook the rest of the way using the residual heat in the water. As the temperature of the egg rises, the temperature of the water will fall, which will give you a much wider window when your egg is perfectly cooked.
Boiled Egg Variables
Before I give you cooking times for the eggs though, you need to know that there are many other factors that will affect the cooking time of the egg and I've outlined some of the major ones below along with what I did in my kitchen.
- Initial egg temperature - An egg right out of the fridge will take longer to cook than an egg at room temperature. But since room temperature varies by season, and most people have their fridges set to around the same temperature. I decided to develop my method using eggs straight out of the fridge.
- Egg size - Size greatly effects the cooking time; the bigger the egg, the longer it will take to cook. I did all my experiments with large eggs (not extra large or jumbo)
- Egg to water ratio - The more water you use relative to the number of eggs, the longer it will take to boil and the longer it will retain heat. Too much water and your eggs will cook too fast, too little and the temperature will fall too fast, resulting in uncooked eggs. Ideally, you'd measure out a certain amount of water for each egg you're boiling. But that seems a little extreme for something so simple. I typically use a pot that comfortably houses the number of eggs I'm going to cook (not crowded, not too spaced out, i.e., six eggs in a medium saucepan), and then cover the eggs with enough water so there's about 1" of water above the top of the eggs.
- Heat retention of the pot you use - Thicker pots, made of denser materials (iron vs aluminum) tend to retain heat better than thinner pots. I used a heavy bottomed stainless steel pot to boil my eggs. If you're using an electric stove (coil or plate type), you should remove the pot from the stove and put it on a trivet after the water boils, as these types of stoves tend to retain heat long after you've turned them off.
- Heat output of your stove - Some stoves are able to boil a pot of water much faster than others. IH (Induction) cooktops tend to be the most efficient, while electric plate type stoves tend to be the least efficient. I've tested this method on both IH and gas cooktops using 5-8 eggs. If you try and do too many eggs, or use an under-powdered stovetop it will take too long for the water to come to a boil. If the water takes too long to boil, your eggs are going to be sitting in hot water for much longer, which will affect the amount of time they need to sit in the water after you turn the stove off.
- Altitude - The boiling temperature of water falls as your altitude rises. If you live in the mountains, this will certainly affect the eggs' cooking times, so you'll need to adjust accordingly. I boiled my eggs at roughly sea level.
- Room temperature - If you're in a very cold room, your water will cool faster than if you're in a warm room. I boiled my eggs in a 24 degree C (75 F) room.
How Many Minutes for Hard-boiled Eggs? How Many Minutes for Soft-boiled eggs?
With all that in mind, here are the cooking times for various types of boiled eggs. The times start after the water has come to a boil and you've turned off the heat.
- 2 minutes - The white isn't fully set and the yolk is totally raw.
- 4 minutes - The white is fully set, but the yolk is thick and runny.
- 6 minutes - The white is fully set, and the yolk is mostly set, but still a little runny in the middle.
- 8 minutes - The white is fully set, and the yolk is set, but tender.
- 10 minutes - The white is fully set, and the yolk is fully set.
Remember to transfer your eggs to cold water as soon as you take them out of the pot to stop the cooking immediately. Otherwise, your eggs will continue cooking even after you've taken them out of the water.
What's The Best Way to Peel an Egg?
If you do a search on google for "peel an egg" there are literally dozens of purported ways to make peeling an egg easy. Most of them don't work with fresh eggs, and while using older eggs works pretty well, who wants to wait two weeks or more to make a boiled egg? It might not matter so much for egg salad, when you want those perfect half-ovals for devilled eggs, frustration mounts.
The good news is, I've come up with a method that works every time, no matter how fresh the egg is. The secret is to put a small crack in the bottom of the egg(the fat side) BEFORE you boil it. The crack needs to extend all the way through the hard shell, but it must not rupture the soft inner membrane (otherwise you'll end up with egg white spewing out of the crack as it boils). I use a small curved object (like the end of a pestle or back of a spoon) to crack the egg on. It creates a more predictable circular crack rather than a linear crack that could spread and rupture the membrane.
So why does this work? My theory is that by putting a small crack in the shell, it allows water to enter the egg and saturate the membrane, mimicking the membrane of an older egg.
By putting a small crack in the shell, it allows water to enter the egg and saturate the membrane, mimicking the membrane of an older egg. If any scientists out there want to compare some cross sections of the albumen-membrane interface under a scanning electron microscope it would be awesome to finally put this mystery to rest.
Recipes Using Boiled Eggs
Once you've mastered the technique, you'll be ready to try the many dishes on No Recipes that include boiled eggs. Japanese Potato Salad, Japanese Egg Sandwich, Ramen Eggs, and Egg in a Biscuit all feature boiled eggs. You can also use them to crown a bowl of udon, bejewel a composed salad, or tuck inside a bento. They even make a nutritious protein-rich snack just as they are, or with a pinch of salt and pepper. Serve them with a bowl of Soy Sauce Butter Rice, and you have a quick and satisfying breakfast. You'll be finding new ways to show off these beauties every day.
Master Other Perfect Eggs
Now that you've mastered the art of boiling eggs how you like them, how about becoming a poached egg pro, or a sunny-side up superstar? To help you along, I've put together a short digital cookbook where I walk you through my techniques for making the perfect egg recipes every time!
Recipe
Perfect Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
Instructions
- Take the eggs from the refrigerator, then tap the bottom of each egg on a curved surface (like the back of a spoon) to make a small circular crack through the shell. Be careful not to rupture the inner membrane.
- Place 6 eggs in a single layer in a saucepan that's big enough to hold 12 eggs and add cold tap water to the pot until the eggs are covered by 1-inch of water.
- Put the pot on a burner over high heat until the water comes to a rolling boil.
- Set a timer for your desired doneness (see times above), and turn off the heat.
- Remove the boiled eggs from the water when they are done. Place eggs in a bowl and repeatedly cover the eggs with cold water until the water doesn't warm up anymore. This will stop the eggs' cooking. Let them soak in this cold water for at least 20 minutes.
- Crack every bit of shell by tapping firmly with the back of a spoon and then peel the egg from the bottom in a spiral pattern towards the top. Be sure to keep the egg wet at all times.
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Mark Cousins says
get a grip tool it is just a f-ing egg tool
Mark Cousins says
where are the wounderful running eggs that you get your finger toast and dunk it in that wounderful golden yoke
Kenyamasi says
Thank god for eggheads like u- my eggs were peeeerffffect
Mike Barson says
Who needs some douchebag scientist's input on the topic? Your idea makes perfect sense. People should stop appealing to authority since it isn't logical anyway.
Thanks for the post.
Carrie says
It worked! For the first time I had a perfectly cooked egg-5 min and it peeled perfectly. You have no idea how thankful I am for this post. My eggs were older too so that helped but I know this will work for my next eggventure with fresh eggs! lol. Thanks!
ray says
Thanks
wasup23 says
That isn't a grammatical error. Its a vocabulary error. And "..." is a grammatical error. It also does not count as a period. Therefore, it is just one very long run on sentence. ... Jus sayn'.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Alex, I did not use a lid to boil the water or after I took it off the stove. A lid helps retain heat which will make the water boil faster and cool slower and will throw the times above off (assuming all else is equal). If you have the type of stove that takes forever to boil water, or you're doing this outdoors on a cold day, you way want to consider using a lid. In the case of the slow stove, remove the lid once the water comes to a boil. In the case of doing this outdoors, you'll probably want to leave the lid on.
alex says
Hi! I was wondering if i boil the eggs do i put the lid on? And when i take them off the heat do I leave them in the water with the lid on too?
Rosemary Travis Spano says
Ok..I am impatient..I read this and other perfect ways to cook the "perfect" hard boiled egg...I usually have no problem with the way I do it without fussing.
Firstly, I do put the eggs in cold water. Water is about an inch above eggs. I bring to a slight boil...Either i continue to cook for about 5 minutes and then turn off heat and let sit until water is cool...Rinse in cold water...i usually peel the shell with running water...Shell comes off clean..I have also changed water in pot after about 20 minutes and put ice cold water into pot not to waste water. Adding ice cubes help as well..Sometimes I add a bit of white vinegar..I don't know if it really helps but it cant hurt. 🙂
bob says
Thanks grammar Nazi.
rocketd says
I followed this tutorial exactly and I got soft boiled eggs at the perfect texture. However, I did the pre-boil crack, being very careful not to break the membrane, and the results were 50/50 with removing the shell very smoothly. Thanks so much for the tutorial, this feels like a major accomplishment.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Adityaa, I think the layer you're referring to is a the soft membrane between the hard shell and the contents of the egg. This isn't a result of cooking (it's there when the egg is raw). Read the post above for my tips on preventing the membrane from sticking to the egg.
Adityaa chauhan says
After cooking eggs some time a layer comes which creates problem in peeling......
What should I do for that
jo-an torres says
Hi...really not for publication... I am just anal about vocabulary .... EXCEPT means "with the exception of" ACCEPT means to agree to .... I try to help professionals keep their sites clean of grammatical errors...great site
Anna says
I also put them in cold water with ice cubes and it makes a big difference in the peeling process!
Lizzy says
Well what i do is put my eggs in a pot add water. Put them on the stove to cook. When they start boiling I set the timer according to the little chart up there and they come out just like the picture.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Rajesh, you could reheat them gently in warm water (about 140 degrees F). This will reheat them without further cooking the egg.
Marc Matsumoto says
This happens because the proteins in the yolk have a lower setting temperature than the whites. Usually when you "boil" eggs, the water is much hotter than the setting temperature for both the yolk and the white, which is why both the yolk and white will set if you boil it for a long time, if you boil it for a short time, the eggs cooks from the outside in, which is why it's possible to have a fully set white with runny yolk. However if you cook the egg at a relatively low temperature for a long time (between the setting point of the yolk and the white), it's possible to set the egg and still have a runny white. This is what's called a "slow cooked egg". I know you said your friend didn't change anything, but there had to have been some small variation that made the temperature (ambient temp, temperature of eggs, number of eggs, type of pot, altitude, etc) of his water lower than usual. Without knowing more about your friends process it's hard to say.
Rajesh says
but 30 mins in cold water before peeling.. I want to eat a hot/warm boiled egg, not a cold boiled egg... any suggestions?
webhill says
Hi! I have a question. A friend of mine recently boiled some eggs using his tried-and-true hard boiled egg method (whatever it is - he does it all the time, it always works fine, he did not do anything differently this time). The eggs ended up with fully set yolks, but runny/raw whites. How or why could this have happened? They were supermarket/mass-market eggs from a grocery store in Texas, USA. Thanks for any information you can provide!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Miki, I'm not a food safety expert so I can't give you advice on that. That said I usually keep boiled eggs in the fridge for up to 5 days in a sealed container.
Miki says
Hi Marc, this is SO useful. Could you please tell me for how long i can store in the fridge, in their shells, hard boiled eggs that are still a bit soft in the middle (about 8 minutes, according to this chart). It is my favorite way to cook them but i want to be able to have a couple of days window to eat them, so i don't have to boil them every day! What is the safe storage days in shell in fridge?
Many thanks!!
miki
reba says
I love your site, I especially love your egg related recipes... I wish the food network or pbs or someone will give you your own show...
su says
1 boiled egg made wet & added 1/2 teaspoon of water in microwave cup ..heat for 11 - 13 sec in micro-oven depending on how fast it heats up. Listen up for cracking like heating up sound & stop it right then, else It will blast if heated up too much. Or easy way is to water heat on slow flame.
mark says
surround with sausage mince, then dip in whisked egg and breadcrumbs, then deep fry for 4 to 6 minutes. 🙂
Keith Fullerton says
Great scientific method for boiling eggs. Unfortunately, I can't get my chickens to lay the same size egg (although at almost 1 per day per chicken, I can't complain).
I was also having trouble peeling them since they are right out of the chicken fresh. My daughter gave my a trick that works though. It is to put 1 Tablespoon of salt into the boiling water. You then chill the eggs in ice water as normal and the shells pop right off. This is much like Matt's comment
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Allie, I float around, but most of the readers of this site are based in the US. I realize that there are international readers (which is why I didn't delete your initial comment), but for most people reading this, what you were advising could make them sick.
Allie says
Hi Marc, no I don't live in the USA and I thought you said you lived in Japan. Remember the Internet is an international forum whether it is .com or not. Not all users of norecipes.com live in the US of A. But good point about being sure of the source of your eggs. If your eggs have ever been refrigerated then you must continue to refrigerate them. I do like your method to cook eggs. This is more or less the way my grandmother taught me. The age of the egg also effects cooking time.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Joyce, the most likely cause is that your eggs are not very fresh. In a fresh egg, the albumen is much thicker and surrounds the yolk, this prevents, the yolk from getting too close to the shell, you can test this by cracking a raw egg onto a plate. In a very fresh egg, you'll see most of the white clump up near the yolk with very little watery albumen that spreads out. In an older egg, you'll have little to no white clinging to the yolk and almost all the white will run all over the plate.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Allie, thanks for the note, but in the US, all eggs have to be pressure washed before being sold. This removes the protective membrane naturally coating eggs and makes them porous, which is why US EGGS SHOULD ALWAYS BE REFRIDGERATED. I'm assuming you don't live in the US, but please be careful what you advise people to do without knowing the facts.
Allie says
Marc, you have some interesting ideas here. Can I point out one other thing? Eggs are best not refrigerated at all. Non-refrigerated eggs last longer than refrigerated ones, and it has something to do with the environment in a fridge making the shell more POROUS to air which breaks down the inner membrane more quickly. This might be what you want if you plan to cook the egg within a day or two, but if you just want to store the eggs safely, then refrigerating is contraindicant. Notice that supermarkets do not normally refrigerate eggs. The only exception would possibly be if you lived in a tropical environment. Also when baking with eggs, they are normally required to be at room temperature, and when boiling eggs, a very cold shell will crack. So people, keep your eggs in a cool, dark cupboard and stop refrigerating them.
Allie says
Joyce, if you stir the eggs gently until they have set, say about 1 minute, the yolk should stay in the centre. When stirring, the object is to rotate the egg, not just move it around the bottom. Or if you use the method where you put the eggs in cold water and bring them up to the boil, stir until boiling.
Allie says
It is natural for egg yolks to look carrot orange. If the yolks of your eggs are a shade of yellow it is because they have been grain fed and kept out of natural sunlight in cages. I have kept hens in New Zealand which live outside in my orchard and are fed mostly scraps, but also fallen fruit, insects that they forage and supplemented ground maize. They have both brown and white shells and the yolks are carrot orange.
Joyce says
Please advise on how to get hard boiled eggs with the yolk in the centre. I always have the yolk poping out from the side of the egg white. Yours look so lovely with all the yolks in the centre. I have been asking around in vain for so long. Appreciate your advice....thanks a heap.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Diana, no need to use a lid.
Diana says
Do you cook and sit with lid on the pot or without the lid?
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mayuri, please read the post. I'm always happy to help out if you have a problem with the recipe, but if you had read the post your question would have been answered. With eggs, you can't just use a time because each persons setup is different (stove, pot, etc). That's why I've gone over a list of variables that you need to take into account before you set the timer.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Mayuri, please read the post. I'm always happy to help out if you have a problem with the recipe, but if you had read the post your question would have been answered.
Mayuri says
I have a really quick question: So do we need to wait for the water with the eggs to boil and then set our timer to 2/4/6/8 minutes for our desired doneness OR do we just start the timer right when we put the pot with the water and eggs on the stove??? Thankyouuu
Max says
Best thing since sliced bread...
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Britni, these ones came from a local farm, but this is how all eggs look in Japan. It has to do with what the chickens are fed I'm told.
Britni says
Your egg yolks look carrot-orange. Are you using standard chicken eggs from a store, free range or backyard chicken eggs, or another bird egg?
nura says
I too love hardboiled eggs and use them in various recipes. Your version of "hard cooked (10 min?) looked undone to me. I like the yellow fully cooked, but the white not rubbery. My method has worked for years- put eggs in cold water, an inch over, bring to boil, boil for 1-2 minutes, take off heat and sit for 17 min. pour off water and add cold water, repeating as water warms up until water doesn't warm up again). Thats usually twice. I add ice cubes if I am impatient. They are perfectly done in the middle without being tough/rubbery or with any raw spots.Tender and delicious.
I also learned to poke the little hole (just used a push pin) in the fat end before cooking to help with peeling. Your method looks interesting,Iwill try. For some reason I now forget, I have always added a little vinegar to the water,but I don't remember why. I have good results, so, I guess there was a reason:)
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Vostro, it's difficult reheating eggs without cooking them more. You could try peeling them after they've cooled and then drop them in boiling water for a bit to heat them up, but timing this will be tricky.
vostro says
After waiting 30 minutes and peeling , the egg will not stay warm anymore...
but i love eating them warm 🙁
any suggestions on how to warm them up again ?
Thank you for the tricks
Regards
-Vostro
Veronica says
This was so helpful! Thank you!
Didi says
Wow! How did I ever make it to 55 Years old, not knowing this? Thank you for sharing, I will pass it on to my kids and make them believe "mommy" is so clever!!
Cole says
You just got schooled son.
Bry says
I just got through giving this a shot in a 3L / 3.2QT saucepan on an open-coil electric range.
When filled to the 3L line there is about an inch of water above the eggs, so the volume of this pan is pretty much perfect and a few more eggs can still fit on the bottom. I cranked the heat to high and turned it off just as soon as the big bubbles began to show themselves and set my phone timer for 9 minutes.
After dumping off the water, I doused them in cold tap water up to the max line again and let them sit for a short period. The consistency fell between the 6 and 8 minute references in the article. They are super delicious!
The pan I used (a cheap t-fal with induction bottom which likely does nothing for this type of stove) is on the lighter side and I may have pulled it off the heat a few degrees C below boiling point, so these are a few factors to consider for next time.
Thank you for posting, Marc!