How To Cook Hard Boiled Eggs

How to cook hard boiled eggs correctly is an art form. So much can go wrong when attempting to boil eggs. For example, if you are boiling eggs to dye for Easter eggs, care must be taken to avoid cracking the shells during cooking. Any egg that gets cracked can’t be dyed for Easter. It is important to learn how to cook hard boiled eggs correctly so they won’t be runny, undercooked, overcooked, discolored, and have a bad odor.

To hard boil eggs, you will need:

• Pot with lid
• Water
• Eggs
• Timing device

1. Put eggs in the pot. Gently place room temperature eggs in the bottom of the pot one at a time to avoid cracking or breaking the shells.
2. Fill the pot with water. Add cold tap water to the pot until all the eggs are covered by one inch of water.
3. Salt the water. Add a teaspoon of salt for each quart of water in the pot. Salt helps the egg white separate from the egg shell during cooking making it easier to peel hard boiled eggs.
4. Cook hard boiled eggs. Place a lid on the pot and bring the water to a full boil over a high heat. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat off. Leave the lid on the pot and let the eggs sit in the boiled water for 10 minutes to complete cooking them to hard boiled.
5. Cool hard boiled eggs. Remove the lid from the pot of hard boiled eggs and place the pot in the sink. Run cold tap water gently over the eggs for five minutes. Remove the hard boiled eggs from the pot one at a time and place in a bowl.
6. Peel hard boiled eggs. The best way to peel a hard boiled egg is to gently tap the shell on the countertop to crack it. Run cold tap water and hold the egg under the water stream. Begin to peel the shell away.

Tips

• If using the hard boiled eggs for dying (Easter Eggs) do not cool the boiled eggs. Hot boiled eggs take the dye better than cooled eggs.

• Always boils eggs that are at room temperature to avoid cracking the egg shells.