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.
Nutrition Facts
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William Davis says
Ahh - I missed the link, and apparently the context, thank you !
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi William, I don't boil the chicken. I bring the water to a boil, add the chicken, cover with a lid and let it sit until the chicken is cooked through. Click the link in this post to get the full details.
William Davis says
Matsumoto-san - You boil your chicken for soup?
wolfe says
I recommend everyone listen to his advice, this
guy is a legend! Thanks for your wisdom
Thomas Abraham says
Google
Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a number of unrelated data, nevertheless seriously really worth taking a search, whoa did a single master about Mid East has got more problerms as well.
K. B. says
Did you put the eggs in before the water boiled, or did you put the eggs in when the water was already boiling? If you did the latter, that's why your eggs aren't coming out well. If you put the eggs in before the water was boiling, did you set the timer before the water was boiling or right at the moment when the water started boiling? If you did the former, that's why your eggs came out wrong. I make boiled eggs every single day for breakfast and 6 minutes makes a perfectly tender yolk so long as I put the eggs in to boil with the water, then set the timer at the moment when the water starts to boil.
Woot Woot says
Perfect. I really hate how many other sites tell you to cook for 6 mins then put into cold water. I would always get practically uncooked egg white in liquid and waste of an egg.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Merlyn, my guess is that they soaked the boiled eggs in salt water overnight. Egg shells actually porous which allows them to pass salt through the shell.
Merlyn Flores says
sorry Marc for the wrong spelling of your name.
Merlyn Flores says
Hello March San,
Thank you for the tips in boiling eggs.
When I was in Japan last month, I stayed in R & B Hotel. They served a very nice cooked hard boiled egg. The texture is really good. The taste is really good. You don't need a salt to add a salty flavor because it is a little bit salty. Maybe you could teach us how they do it.
I examined the shell, it has no crack or anything that they can put salt inside of it.
Its really taste good. I could finish 2 to 3 eggs every breakfast.
Thanks in advance.
Merlyn Flores says
Hello Marc San
Missy Frindt says
Perfect! After sometimes getting my soft boiled eggs perfect and other times not so much, this was the best! Turned out just the way I like them! Even peeling them was a breeze!
Thank you!!
Marc Matsumoto says
It's fine if it's been enamel coated like a le creuset.
Johnny says
I don't think boiling in cast iron pots is a good idea.
Eugene K. Chan says
Thank you for replying! I will try your method tomorrow morning. It's really a joy and pleasure to read your blog... the amount of passion you have towards cooking is inspiring!
Marc Matsumoto says
This will work for an old egg that's hard boiled, but it won't work for fresh eggs and won't work with a soft-boiled egg.
Eugene K. Chan says
Thank you for the recipes!
A while ago I found out that this is the easiest way to peel an egg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkWISKfgqZ0
Amy Gleich says
Ridiculously perfect eggs! I like the yolk done - so I went with the 10 minutes after the water came to a boil. my previous hard boiled eggs always came out with that awful greeny grey outer yolk. That's a thing of the past with this method!
I used my 5 litre cast iron pot - brought the eggs to a boil, once the water was boiling I let it boil for about 20 seconds. I took it off the heat, set my phone for 10 minutes and the minute the time was up I scooped the eggs into a colander and rinsed under cold water. I also tried the tip of gently cracking the eggs before cooking. I'll try that again - some may not have been cracked enough because some eggs were really easy to peel, some were as stubborn as always.
Anyway, thanks for all the great tips and the thorough article! I'm gonna say it - it's an eggcellent read!
Ellen POrtal says
thanks so much for your speedy response...I've got it!! I am making egg salad next week for 40 people...so your timing couldn't be better!! Thanks again!! Ellen
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Ellen, unless your pot is aluminum, you should not need to cover it. Other than that you have the process right for making hard-boiled eggs. I would not recommend dropping cold eggs in boiling water as it will make them explode. Also continuously boiling for 10 minutes will most likely overcook the eggs, giving them a green ring around the edge of the yolk.
Ellen POrtal says
WEll believe it or not I am confused...I thought you put the cold eggs with the crack in the bottom into the cold water, bring to a rapid boil on high heat, keep a lid on the pot, remove from the heat and let the eggs remain in the hot water for about 10 minutes and then transfer to cold water for thirty minutes then peel them easily...is that correct? Some of the comments say that they put the eggs in after the water boils and leave them boiling on the heat for 10 minutes...please clarify!! thanks for help with the seemingly easy task!
Ellen
Trollington says
Hey KFH, here's another solution to one of life's problems with no blah blah. To stop those annoying scrapes and carpet burn on your knuckles, put your arms in two slings so they don't drag on the floor.
Joshua Michaels says
LOL
i boil for 30 to 40 min....fully cooked
good article.peace
Jonathan Nevill says
Wow! It's a pity you were ever given a brain KFH... seeing as how you don't want to use it...
Ace Vu says
What an ignoramus.
Ashkan Yazdi says
I waited for the water to boil before adding the eggs, I did a two-minute egg; however, I left them in the water for about 5 min after I had shut off the heat. Perfectly cooked egg with creamy thick yolk.
SpoonFullOfSugar says
I'm sorry you have no interest in understanding the theory of how things work. You won't have to think for yourself, but you will always have to rely on other people's wisdom. That said, you should probably take another look at the recipe, it doesn't say boil the egg for 10 minutes, if you do that, you will get your regular solid hard boil egg. Cheers.
K F H says
I think your explanation is too long and to me is a lot of bla bla bla for absolutely nothing boil the eggs for 10 minutes PERIOD
Jenn Jeremy Phillips says
Tried this method this morning for a 4 minute egg. I did everything by the recipe except I waited until the water was boiling before adding my eggs. I came out with 2 perfect soft boiled eggs and 1 that needed a little more time. Thanks for giving me a starting place!
Kim says
This is the best outline I have seen for cooking.
It is meticulous and explanatory in the various factors in cooking.
I think I have just found my new favorite recipe site.
Will definitely try this and will be going through many of the other recipes!
Thanks so much for these guidelines!!
Marc Matsumoto says
That's really interesting SR, your explanation makes sense and fits in with my hypothesis.
SR says
Wonderful article! I think I may have an idea why cracking the egg before boiling or cracking all over and soaking it in water makes it so much easier to peel. I have backyard chickens and regularly incubate eggs. You have to increase the humidity in the incubator at hatch time to soften the membrane so the chicks are able to hatch without getting stuck. I'd assume it's pretty much the same concept. 🙂
Jamie says
I boil for 20 min
Al Franken says
Try covering the pot and see what happens.
Al Franken says
This method works well for hard boiled and I will try with soft boiled right now. I crush the shell and peel in a bowl of water. It works out well. Rinse to get rid of all shell fragments. That is for hard boiled. I just top the soft boiled.
mike betterson says
^ you mad bro?
commonsense0000 says
The better you understand something, the more you can manipulate it to fit your needs. People may seek an authority's opinion only because he/she spent time researching a particular subject, not because they hold them up to some kind of pedestal. It saves time from doing it yourself. 🙂
commonsense0000 says
It clearly states there are a number to variables that affect cooking time. It's like half a page worth of info if you had bothered to read. It's even in bullet points to make reading easier.
Mike Barson says
Yeah but they didn't invent fire dumbass. You completely missed the point which isn't hard for you since there's nothing but air between your ears.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi B.T., it sounds like your water cooled too quickly. This could be due to a number of factors. The first could be that your pan does not retain heat very well (such as a thin aluminum pan). The second possibility is that there wasn't enough water in your pot for the number of eggs. The third possibility is that your room was too cold. Hope this helps.
B.T. says
I followed directions let it come to a boil and then let it sit for 10 min. Instead of well done they came out more like the 4 minute egg! What happened.
Wolkenlaufer says
What about those microwave eggy-looking things? Been trying to come up with an exact time, but no go. So far, I set the water level, set the eggs in then set it for around 5 minutes 15 seconds, but just can't seem to find a happy medium. Or large, Or grade A large. Grade B 2 large..... and they CAN"T be too large. Thanks.....
Jon Collins says
Because douchbag scientists invented the gas or electric stove that you cook your eggs on, they perfected pans to channel heat more efficiently into their contents, they improve laying efficiency in the chickens that your eggs come from, they improved welfare and health of chickens that your eggs come from, they worked out the different components of an egg, the nutritional content of those eggs, how to... oh man, do I really have to go on? Go live in the wilderness if you believe that your life should be devoid of the benefits of science.
Karen Wiggins says
I am going to try this RIGHT now. We have chickens so we have fresh eggs all the time. I have really got to find more recipes for using them. I seem to always over cook my boiled eggs. Hopefully not anymore. A way I have found to make peeling easier is to put a little cooking oil in the water while boiling them. but I have going to try cracking the bottom of them now. Thanks for the info.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Gg, the yolk turns a greyish green when it's been overcooked. The solution is to cook it for less time.
Gg says
How do you keep the yolk from turning green?
Melisse says
You know when I was younger I really dont remember having a hard time peeling an egg. Now that im 4? It just seems to me that the last 15 years maybe, its been a pain in the egg shell. These tips are good though for this I thank you. Happy Easter
Jill Sandwich says
When it comes to shelling the egg, the age of the egg has something to do with how stubborn the shell it to get off. & when it comes to boiling the egg, elevation (sea level vs high altitude) also plays a part.
Where I live, a hard boiled egg takes 15-20 minutes, 2 minutes for a coddled egg, anything in between will produce soft boiled. Where I used to live, I could get a hard boiled egg in 7 minutes & all you had to do for a coddled egg was set it on the porch outside & count to 60.
Mark Cousins says
hey Marc just buy a egg timer fool
Mark Cousins says
was the yoke moist and golden yellow running on you fork.......?