Make The Perfect Boiled Egg With The Power Of Science

uuuhhh cool?

kingoftowns

Hey lifehacker, how about my suggestion about how to tell the difference between raw and hard boiled eggs?

brodiemac

Eggtasticccc

Or, just follow this:

1. Put eggs in pot, cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Take off heat, cover and wait 10 minutes.
4. Shock in cold water
5. Peel and eat!

Perfect Hard boiled eggs everytime.

Abraham Song

Ahh, the internet, and its infinite wealth of information. What's the most interesting thing you've actually learned to do on the internet?

Off the top of my head, since I'm wearing one right now, is how to tie a tie.

@lmaonaise: Eggsellent!

In case anyone is looking for their sea level in meters:

[www.mysealevel.com]

glitch1138

@brodiemac:

You just spin them.

Deprong Mori

@Deprong Mori:You could either spin it or drop it in a glass of water.
If it floats, you propably dont want to do anything else but to throw it away.

blorro

doesnt work in europe that one am afraid. or i should be drowned...

blorro

"...water boils faster the higher you are."

Not strictly true. What I think your actually getting at is that the higher you are above sea level, the lower the boiling point will be. This is why it seems to take forever to cook anything properly at altitude.

Matt A

Sounds like an April Fool's Day joke. But it seems useful anyway.

@Matt A: Actually, I really appreciate the clarification there. It filled in the relevance gap, so I now understand that the boiling water isn't as hot at higher altitude. Just from a general knowledge standpoint, it's a good fact to have. Good on ya! :)

@Matt A: "What I think your(sic) actually getting at is that the higher you are above sea level, the lower the boiling point will be."

Actually, that is true. Since the boiling point of water is lower at a higher altitude, water does, in fact, boil (as in, reach it's lower boiling point) faster.

Piaculum

@blorro: Or drop it off the the window from your 17th floor downtown apartment. It will quickly become clear whether it's raw or hard-boiled.

Lennard: "You're Making Eggs for Breakfast?"
Sheldon: "This isn't Breakfast, it's an experiment"
Lennard: "Ah"

The only thing I got out of this article is that I'm 169 meters above sea level. And that I'm boiling eggs for too long. I should be punished because my boiled eggs aren't perfect.

tinpot

@Abraham Song: +1 This is the ONLY way to do it. Plus, you never get greenish-gray yolks using this method, just perfect bright yellow/orange.

junkmail

@UnMicD: That method seems more time comsuming than quick.

Fain

I love boiled eggs

Gilbert Capulong

@kall: I, for one, would love a glowing fish nightlight.

@Matt A: +1. Water at lower pressure (which, at higher altitudes, is the case) will have a lower boiling point.

Thermodynamics 101.

thats hilarious.

Witherslick

@kall: Thats funny

Witherslick

@projectvirus: how to overclock my desktop. and I also learned how to filter caffine from drinks

Witherslick

Ahh, good old heat transfer.

I remember doing something sort of like this in college. We had to write a MATLAB program to predict how long it would take the center of a boiling hot dog to reach a given temperature. Pretty simple to set up a finite element algorithm to predict it.

@Abraham Song: That's great if you want hard boiled eggs, which are generally pretty easy to do. Some of us prefer soft boiled, and that's where it gets tougher. Too short a time, and you have a raw egg - too long a time, and the yolk is cooked and dry. The quest is for that perfect, hot, gooey yolk.

Kelly Cannon De Borda

@Piaculum: You're right, considering you changed the meaning of faster.

jupiterthunder

@Abraham Song: I started using this method, but the white comes off with the shell when peeling.

orlo

The link to how to properly peel an egg works, but the video has been removed...

DeniseRhinoceros

@UnMicD: That's what my roomie did to crack open a coconut

I don't doubt that the circumference of the egg,the starting temp, height above sea level are all relevant...but more most people these are "fixed" rather than "variable". What can and does vary though is the freshness of the egg, and this has an effect on the white of the egg. This is why you should always use your freshest eggs for poaching.

Re boiled eggs
This method works for me EVERY time:

Put egg in water
Bring to boil
( don't put egg in boiling water...it will crack)
after couple of minutes....guess/estimate...take the egg from the water with a spoon ( ideally a slotted spoon if you have one...if not it doesn't really matter).
Look at the egg.
What you are looking for is the evaporation of the water from the surface of the egg.
If your egg surface remains wet....put it back in the boiling water.
If the water evaporates after a couple of seconds...you have a soft boiled egg.
If the water evaporates instantaneously....you have a hard boiled egg.

After following this method a few times you will get your eye in and be able to judge the cooking time to produce your perfect boiled egg.....every time,
you will never revert to or relay on any other method ever again,
you can amaze and/or impress your guests, wife/husband, kids, girlfriends/boyfriends

PS works on anything from a goose egg to a bantam hen egg.

Fresh eggs don't peel well - that's your problem.

Here is a foolproof method for softboiled eggs:

Put eggs in pot, cover with cold water from tap, put on stove on high heat.
When the water gets to a rolling boil, set timer for 3.5 minutes.
Take pot off heat, pour off water, rinse eggs in cold water.

I live in Michigan, close to sea level, and my eggs always come out soft-boiled, not too runny but not hard either.

My suggestion is to try this once and then tweak the time you boil by 30 seconds either way to adjust your egg to your taste.
@orlo:

@projectvirus: Paying for porn is stupid?

ANOPRAX

I disagree muddypaws I've never had an egg crack. I always bring the water to a boil first then place the eggs in. Let it cook for about 20-24 minutes and a cook cool down and you have perfect eggs. This way the eggs shell doesn't get stuck when your peeling them.

maddencorner

Wow, no offense, Lifehacker, but I think this article just made my life a little MORE complicated.

You know what an easy way to cook eggs is? With an egg cooker! And no, you don't have to get a uni-tasker for this (although I have the Cuisinart egg cooker and I love it).

Go to any home appliance store (Bed Bath & Beyond, for example) and get yourself a "Back to Basics Egg and Muffin Toaster." Not only can it toast, but it can make a darn good egg sandwich (with ham!). Additionally, it can perfectly cook up to four eggs at once. The done-ness of the eggs is controlled by the amount of water you put in at the start, and I've never had a problem with the results.

This might sound a little like an add, but I swear it isn't. I've had one of these things for several years now, and it's fantastic. I frequently go off to work having made a ham/egg/cheese sandwich in about 5 minutes.

Dignan17

Mmmmmm, Bløtt.

It wasn't made clear in the original post -- wait for the water to boil, THEN put the egg in and start timing.

FloraKabobber

I've always heard that the best way is to start the eggs off in cold water, bring just to a boil and take them off the heat and leave them in the water for 5 minutes. This avoids the green layer of sulfur around the yolk. I don't eat the horrible things though. :)

veruus

I used to have a hard time peeling hard boiled eggs without digging out part of the white in the process. I figured out a little technique that has produced perfect eggs every time without wasting any white.

Once the water boils, remove it from the heat, let the eggs sit for a few minutes (about ten) in the hot water and then rinse it with cool water.

Gently press on the egg shell with the blunt of your thumb (I use the middle knuckle on the inside) until it starts to crack (DO NOT USE FINGERNAILS).

Roll the egg around in your hands, pressing firmly on the shell, cracking it all the way around without breaking the shell's 'membrane'.

Once the shell is sufficiently cracked all the way around (like a dry lake bed), then run a little bit of cool water over it and start to peel the shell away on the top or bottom. Your egg should just slide out and the entire shell should come off in one piece all held together by the membrane.

I use this method when making deviled eggs so that I don't end up with a bunch of little holes dug out of the eggs. Plus, it saves you from sticking nasty fingernails into the food you're about to eat. Look it up, fingernails have lots of nasty underneath them!

[www.lmgtfy.com]

califrag

deprong mori? the "piercing devil" that Bernard Mattson trapped in a wall of solid lead and identified as Myotis Lucifgis?

that deprong mori?

etmthree

@Rhayader: So, did you make any money off that yet?

TheFu

Call me lazy - I use a steamer/rice cooker to hard boil eggs. They are **perfect** every time.

6-8 eggs
1.5 cups of water - tap
Push the "steam" button
24 minutes later, done.
Place the eggs in ice water to stop the cooking.

For ZERO green outside the yoke, I'd use 23 min, but I like the thinnest of green layers.

TheFu

@orlo:

If you have a cooled hard boiled egg, place it on the counter. Gently push down with your hand until you hear the shell crack, then roll it once all the way around using your hand. This loosens the shell membrane from the white but the shell is still stuck to it. You can then peel the egg fairly easily.

Diane Blais-Lummerding

How to boil an egg... with SCIENCE!

TheLostVikings

Actually, the key to a "perfect" egg isn't time, but temperature. [www.khymos.org]

Anthony Gold

@lmaonaise: Eggstra Special

Kavi Agarwal

To make this practical it would be a good idea to calculate some boiling times using whatever parameters apply to one's own situation, maybe even do it with both the refrigeration temperature and room temperature, and print out a handy chart for the kitchen.

pale_blue_eyes

Thank God. Before this I didn't have any idea about how to boil an egg. Next?

24wm

SPIN EGGS TO TELL IF THEY ARE RAW OR HARD BOLLIED. HArd bollied eggs spin easily on a benchtop, raw eggs slow down quickly. Also works to tell if your eggs are past use by date as the gas inside off eggs makes them spin like bollied eggs...

TalbotPacilus

@muddypaws: That sounds like a good method, I'll have to try it. I like having a simple test to use instead of having to analyze a matrix of variables.

Science can do anything, even make perfect boiled eggs apparently! :D

Josh Tate

@Dignan17: That... sounds... AMAZING. I wants.

-emory-

@lmaonaise: Eggciting!

TurahkTamer

Awesome! But now I have to go find some string and a ruler to measure egg circumference...

QuinnAutomedon

lol! This seriously reminds me of SNL's Anal Retentive Chef played by - the now murdered - Phil Hartman.

If you don't know which one I'm talking about, here's the official NBC video: [www.nbc.com]

magnoliasouth

@[www.realsimple.com]

If you've specifically thought of the need to distinguish them beforehand, you can follow what that says and add a couple tablespoons of vinegar when you boil them, leaving the shell stained enough to tell them apart from the uncooked ones.

@projectvirus: How to open a beer bottle with another bottle. Always a hit at parties.

@projectvirus: Ties don't go on your head!
Being serious, though, the things I've learned are how to build a computer and programming.

Finally something posted on Lifehacker in my native language... Norwegian kicks arse.

Vages