So You Think You Know How to Boil an Egg?

Despite having a reputation for being a pretty commonplace breakfast food, boiled eggs are something that a lot of home cooks struggle to get right. Getting the cooking time right so you avoid turning your boiled eggs into mouthfuls of ash is pretty important, and if you’re not delicate enough while peeling, you can easily punch a hole into your egg – no fun.

If you’re someone who’s often confused by the best way to prep a boiled egg, we’re here to help. We have a sweet little boiled egg hack from cook, former MasterChef contestant and TV presenter Adam Liaw.

Recently on his series The Cook Up, Liaw shared a recipe for bacon and egg salad. And as a part of that experience, he shared that his secret to achieving a better and more manageable boiled egg, you should pop a hole in one end with a pin.

Adam Liaw’s boiled egg hack

In the episode, Liaw explained the method behind this odd-seeming move.

“I just got a little pin, and I’m poking a hole in the base of them. I think this is the most important thing to do when you’re boiling eggs, to be honest,” he said.

“Because it helps you peel them and it also helps you kind of centre the yolks a little bit because there’s an air pocket inside your egg, and so by releasing the air pocket, you end up with, I guess a more round egg. And you also don’t break the shells. So, I can put them, you know, straight into boiling water.”

If you’re wondering whether this will result in the egg centre leaking out the hole in the shell, Liaw cleared up that this shouldn’t be an issue. However, if you try and get clever by popping in a hole on both ends of the egg with a pin, you’ll end up with “an egg-white noodle”.

Sounds pretty neat, right? If you’re keen to see more, you can watch the full clip from SBS here.