How to hard boil eggs so they peel perfectly every time! Learn how to boil eggs the easy way with these step by step directions.
How to Boil Eggs…the easy way!
Have you ever boiled a pan of eggs and had a terrible time peeling them? There you are, getting ready to make that batch of deviled eggs, only to have most of your egg come off with the shell. It’s one of the most frustrating things ever! The method I’m sharing today gives step-by-step directions and will take the mystery out of how to hard boil eggs.
I don’t remember when I started using this method or where I found the directions. Like most of you, I’ve boiled eggs for many years. When my daughter was young, she loved tuna fish sandwiches. Since it was one thing I knew she would always eat, I made it fairly often. I always put hard boiled eggs in it, so I was boiling eggs quite a bit. When my son was in high school, he used to eat just the egg whites of 2 or 3 boiled eggs for part of his breakfast. I felt like I was boiling eggs all the time, so I had plenty of opportunities to fine-tune my procedure!
How to Hard Boil Eggs
Ingredients
- 4-12 fresh eggs
Instructions
- Gently lay your eggs in a sauce pan that has a lid.
- Try to fill the pan with enough eggs so there is minimal movement while boiling.
- Cover with cold water.
- Put the lid on and heat on high.
- Watch closely and when it comes to a boil, reduce heat to low/medium and crack the lid.
- Boil for exactly 10 minutes. The water should be boiling constantly but not hard enough to overflow.
- Remove from heat and empty as much boiling water as you can into your sink.
- Set the pot down and stream very cold water so the pan overflows.
- Let the water stream for about a minute. Turn the water off.
- Immediately add ice cubes to the pan of cold water and eggs.
- Use as many ice cubes as you can fit.
- Gently push each egg into the bottom of the pan to crack the shell. This will let a little water in and aids the peeling process.
- Let sit for another minute. FOR FARM FRESH EGGS: LET SIT FOR 10 MINUTES.
- Start removing the eggs one at a time and peel them immediately.
- THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. DO NOT WAIT TO PEEL YOUR EGGS!
- Eggs can be stored in an air-tight container in refrigerator for 3 - 5 days.
How to Hard Boil Eggs that are Farm Fresh
Update: I had a few questions asking if this method would work for farm fresh eggs. I have never used them, but evidently they are very hard to peel after they are boiled. I did some research and here’s what I found:
Follow the method above exactly until you get to step #13. For farm fresh eggs, let them sit in the ice water for ten minutes instead of just one minute. This should do the trick and make the boiled eggs easy to peel.
Boiled Eggs Peeling Tip
Just under the shell of the egg is a thin, milky membrane. After the boiled egg is cracked, and as you are beginning to tear away the shell, find this membrane and pull it off with the shell. The shell sticks to the membrane like glue, but if you grab the membrane, they both come off together with ease.
I realize that most of you reading this don’t need a tutorial on how to boil eggs. I wanted to share it because you may learn something that you didn’t know. Plus, there’s a whole generation of would-be cooks out there who don’t know anything about boiled eggs and might find it useful. My two kids would be part of that generation! Now it’s here for them if they ever need it.
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