The first (and most obvious) sign that you've overcooked your hard-boiled egg is when you cut the egg open. The yolk will have a grayish/white or bluish/green tinge to it. It'll also be crumbly and fall apart. The second sign is the strong (and unpleasant) sulfur smell that comes from the eggs.
For one to four eggs, bring the water to a rolling boil, cover the pot, and turn the heat down to its lowest setting for 12-14 minutes. For five to eight eggs, cook for 15 to 18 minutes. For nine to one dozen eggs, cook for 20 minutes. After cooking, transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water.
Shelly McKee, a food scientist at Deb-El Foods and an expert on egg chemistry, said that boiling an egg for a long time would cause it to expel moisture. As the proteins in the egg white clump together ever more tightly, they would squeeze out the water contained within the egg.
When you boil eggs, hydrogen sulphide - a toxic gas is released in the whites of the egg. This happens especially when you overboil the eggs. If you have noticed, overcooked eggs have a green coating on their yolk, which is a signal that you should not eat them.
Bring water to a boil over high heat. Let the water rapidly boil for 30 seconds, cover and remove from heat. Let sit 4-12 minutes. 4 minutes for jammy eggs or 12 minutes for fully hard boiled eggs and 8 or 10 minutes for somewhere in between.
Gently lower in fridge-cold eggs. Lower the heat slightly – so the eggs don't crack due to being bashed around but water is still at a gentle boil. Start the timer – 6 minutes for runny yolks, 8 minutes for soft boiled, 10 minutes for classic hard boiled, 15 minutes for unpleasant rubbery whites and powdery dry yolks.
Place 12 eggs in the bottom of a large pot and and cover with water 1 inch above the eggs. Bring the water to a boil, gently stirring the eggs several times. As soon as the water boils, remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let the eggs sit for 15 minutes (13 minutes for small eggs or 17 minutes extra large eggs).
Place eggs in a medium pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and turn off the heat. Let the eggs cook, covered, for 9 to 12 minutes, depending on your desired done-ness (see photo). Transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water and chill for 14 minutes.
Fill pan with cold water until eggs are covered by one inch. Heat water over medium heat until it is at a full rolling boil. Let eggs cook for 15 seconds, then remove pan from heat, cover with lid, and leave for 20 minutes. Next, carefully drain the hot water and replace it with cold water.
To avoid getting a green yolk, cook your eggs just long enough to reach the desired doneness—no more. And quickly plunge the cooked eggs into cold water to stop the cooking process and minimize the iron-sulfur reaction. Some people also say that the cold-water plunge makes eggs easier to peel.
Boil for 6 – 7 minutes over medium-high heat for perfect hard boiled eggs. Using a slotted spoon, transfer them to a large bowl of ice water and let them cool for a few minutes. Or you can place them under cool running water to stop the cooking. This will also help the eggs peel easily.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, you can keep hard-cooked eggs in the refrigerator for up to seven days after they have been cooked. 1 (Here's the best way to make them.) And it doesn't matter whether the eggs are already peeled or still in the shell. Either way, they will last for a week.
Set 12 eggs or as many as you desire (in a single layer) into a large saucepan. Fill pot with water to completely cover the eggs at least 1 inch above eggs and turn heat to high. Bring water to a boil, takes approximately 15 minutes. As soon as eggs start to boil, let boil for 10-12 minutes (I do 11 minutes).
6 1/2 minutes: A soft, jammy yolk. This is my favorite for eggs on toast or soft boiled eggs on a salad. 8 minutes: A medium yolk that's slightly soft but firm enough to hold its own. 10 minutes: The early stages of a hard boiled egg, with just a smidge of softness in the middle.
Leave the pan uncovered. Turn the heat to high and bring the water to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat, cover, and let sit: Depending on how cooked you like your hard boiled eggs, the eggs should be done perfectly after sitting for 10-12 minutes.
The vinegar in the water makes the eggs easier to peel. Here's why: The vinegar's acid not only dissolves some of the calcium carbonate in the shell, it also helps the whites set faster. Running the hard-boiled eggs under cold running water as you're peeling, meanwhile, helps the shell separate from the membrane.
It's best to store hard-boiled eggs with the shells on, as the outer layer serves as a protective barrier. Plus, they're easier to peel once they've chilled in the fridge for a while.
Plunge the eggs in ice water.
This stops the cooking process from residual heat, so you don't end up with overcooked eggs. Also, some of the water permeates the shell, which helps loosen the bond to the egg white and makes the boiled eggs easy to peel.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Add enough water so that your eggs will be covered by a few inches. Eggs that aren't totally submerged in the boiling water won't cook evenly. If you're cooking a large batch of eggs, consider using a wide pot so that the eggs all lay in a single layer for more even cooking.
Can You Reboil an Egg? Do you have a strong suspicion that you undercooked your boiled eggs, or did a crack tell you the batch wasn't quite done? As long as an egg's shell hasn't been cracked, it's perfectly fine to put it back in hot water and continue cooking it.
This is because the egg white or “albumen” in a fresh egg has a relatively low pH level, making it acidic. When cooked, these fresh egg whites bond strongly to the inner shell's membrane. As an egg ages, the pH level rises and the inner membrane is less likely to bond to the albumen, so the shell peels off much easier.
Bring water to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to moderately high and cook eggs at a gentle boil, uncovered, 10 minutes. Pour off hot water. If using eggs right away, shake pan gently so eggs bump into one another (to crack shells). Run cold water into pot to stop cooking.