It was bound to happen.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
When I put the one not-hardboiled egg in the same fridge area as the hard-boiled ones, I had a fleeting, "I shouldn't do this." thought, but I must have dismissed it.
Because when I went to peel an egg as I was packing Mr. FG's lunch* this morning, I managed to pick the one that wasn't cooked.
Raw eggs do not, in fact, peel. In case you were wondering.
Fortunately, I wasn't peeling it over the floor or anything, so the egg is saved and will be scrambled. Or fried. Or something.
By the way, Cook's Illustrated's method of hard-boiling eggs is working great for me! I can't believe how non-stinky the eggs are and the yolks are perfectly cooked and surprisingly unchalky.
It's easy: cover the eggs in a pot with an inch of water (the water should be an inch above the eggs), bring to a boil, take off the burner and let the eggs sit with the lid on the pot for ten minutes, and then dunk the eggs in a bath of ice water.
*I pack Mr. FG's lunch while he showers. This way, we get to set the alarm as late as possible while still getting him to work on time. 😉
I've cooked my eggs this way for years. Interestingly, even if I accidentally leave them too long in the hot water, they still come out great, with no "green line" surrounding the yolks. I usually set a timer to remind me to drain them and put them in the cold water, but sometimes... well, you know.
Ramona Quimby?
😀
Oh my gosh, I'd totally forgotten about that part of Ramona until I google it just now after reading your comment.
Guess it's a good thing I wasn't cracking it on my head.
I love Ramona. Although my very favorite Ramona book is the one where she is the annoying preschooler and she shoves her doll (Bendix? Chevrolet?) into the oven in Beezus's birthday cake. Preschool Ramona is just epic.
I usually do the lazy man version: eggs in cold water, bring to boil, turn off, leave in till you get around to putting them away. This has worked for me for years.
But not last week. Somwhow I ended up with soft-boiled eggs: the whites were soft, sticking to the shell even, and the yolks liquid. I fixed that with a quick reboil but bleck.
That's the method of making hard boiled eggs that I've used for the last couple of years and it always works great for me!
My husband and I do the same thing. He has to be at work by 7am. So he showers and I make breakfast and pack his lunch. It's lovely to get that little bit of extra sleep every morning!
I haven't had a hard boiled egg in years. But this post is making me crave egg salad sandwiches. And deviled eggs...
Glad the accident was contained and you didn't have to clean egg off everything.
I saw an America's Test Kitchen once where they steamed the eggs instead of boiling. It makes them really easy to peel, even when they are fresh. Just set the desired number of eggs in a steamer basket over boiling water. I think the recipe (if you could call it that) steamed them for about 15 minutes but at my altitude it takes close to 20. Then plunge in cold water to stop the cooking. Because this method makes them so easy to peel I always use it now- I never have gouged up whites anymore!
"*I pack Mr. FG’s lunch while he showers. This way, we get to set the alarm as late as possible while still getting him to work on time."
This is exactly what I do. If I do as much as possible the night before, I even have time to check out TFG. Thanks for the motivation.
I started using this method of hardboiling about 2-3 years ago and definitely noticed an improvement in the final product. One addition for me, though - I read somewhere to add a small dash (about a teaspoonful) of baking soda into the water too so I've been doing that as well.
I am always floored when this way of cooking eggs is promoted as a new way to cook eggs. I am in my 60's and this is how my mother taught me to cook hard-cooked eggs. Never have green yolks unless I forget to set the timer!
You are just ahead of your time! 😉
I always mark hard boiled eggs - either right on the shell (since that gets peeled away anyway) or label the carton (or part of the carton, as the case may be) - to keep this from happening. And like everyone else, this is my preferred method of boiling eggs as well. Although I might have to try steaming them as someone mentioned here! 🙂
If you use white-shelled eggs, you can dye them as you boil them, by adding some yellow onion skin (brownish) or beet peelings (purpleish).
Do the beets make the actual eggs purple? Mr. FG might be sort of startled by that. Heh.
My guess is no. Beet juice is how those reddish-purple pickled eggs are made, and it shold dye the shell, but I know of no reason why the juice should make it through the shell to the meat.
Ok, sweet. I have some beets here, so maybe I will give this a try.
I always regret it when I don't listen to that little voice in my head!
You must be more gentle when breaking the shells of your eggs than I am - this has happened to me and I've ended up with scrambled raw egg on the counter and my hand in the middle of it all 🙂
I was tapping it with a spoon, and on the first tap or so, white leaked out, and I was like, "Ohhh, nuts."
Its weird, but 10 min for me gives me raw eggs. I need 17 min for a perfect egg.
Wow. I haven't ever tried 17, but then again, another 7 minutes in water off the stove wouldn't really make them overcooked.
Do you live at altitude? Hard boiled eggs take 30 minutes here in Denver. Higher altitude means less air pressure, means water boils at a lower temperature, means things take longer to cook. 🙂
I have an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot) and it's perfect for eggs. 1 cup of water, the steamer basket, and as many eggs as desired. Dial in 7 minutes at pressure. When the beeper goes off, I release the steam, plunge the eggs in an ice bath. The whole process takes maybe 10 minutes. Eggs are perfectly done and easy to peel.
I can also do soft boiled eggs--4 minutes at pressure.
My favorite Beezus and Ramona book was when Ramona went to kindergarten. She had no assigned seat on the first day, so the teacher told her to "sit here for the present". Ramona would NOT get out of the seat, because she was waiting for her present. I still laugh when I think about that one.
Beverly Cleary is just such a genius.
I always mark my hard boiled eggs by drawing an "X" on them with a pencil.
BTW - 10 minutes will get you nearly raw eggs here in the Mile High city. It takes at least 30 minutes here, more if the room temperature is cold enough to cool the water quickly. So vary your timing according to altitude and room temp!
Oh! I hadn't thought about that.
How to tell if an egg is raw or cooked if you're not sure? Give it a spin on the countertop. If it wobbles and doesn't spin well, it's raw, if it spins well and keeps going, it's cooked!
This is not related to eggs except for possibly the price...I went to Aldi for the first time and oh my goodness. Unfortunately it's an hour and a half round trip from home so I guess that negates the savings (plus my time) to do regularly but if I'm headed in that direction it is definitely worth planning some extra time to shop. The only not-so-impressive was the fruit selection but I do have a local fruit/veg warehouse open to the public on weekends which is hard to beat.
That's how my mom taught me how to hard boil an egg when I was 8 or 9. It's nice to see sometimes the old ways are the best ways. 🙂
I learned this method from my college roommate. Similar to some of the other commenters I usually leave the eggs in hot water for longer than 10 minutes while I'm busy with something else but thy always turn out perfect.
To identify our hard boiled eggs, we simply take a pencil and put a capital H on the shell after they are hard boiled and ready to put back in the refrigerator.
*I pack Mr. FG’s lunch while he showers. This way, we get to set the alarm as late as possible while still getting him to work on time.*
Did Mr. FG change shifts again? I thought you were eating breakfast together as a family and a big meal at noon, since he was gone in the afternoons and missed the last meal of the day. (Maybe swing shift)
Yeah, the only thing predictable about his work schedule seems to be change! At this moment in time, he's working a day shift, but who knows how long that will last.