cold water: you might have heard that you should start the eggs in room temperature or cold water and then bring them to a boil. This is a myth. According to our tests, starting with hot water yields eggs that are easier to peel—so always start by boiling your 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.
Bring the water to a boil over medium heat and as soon as the water reaches a boil, cover the pot and set a timer for 10 to 12 minutes. Once the eggs are fully cooked, carefully transfer them to an ice bath to instantly stop the cooking process.
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).
A boiling start for 30 seconds to a very gentle simmer for 13 minutes, then an ice bath at the end makes perfect, easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs.
The heat coming from your stove denatures the protein by disrupting some of its bonds that held the molecule into shape. In the case of hard-boiled eggs, the proteins clump together and solidify, causing the egg white and yolk to harden.
— Drew H., Oakland, Calif. If you boil an egg for five or 10 minutes, it becomes firm and cooked. If you boil it for hours, it becomes rubbery and overcooked.
Basically: After you boil a bunch of eggs in their shells, the water left over is more calcium-rich than ever, and not a bad option to repurpose for watering your houseplants. You want to make sure that you let the water return to room temperature before you add it to your plants' soil.
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.
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).
Kenji López-Alt's James Beard Award–winning The Food Lab suggests (after many, many rounds of tests) lowering eggs into boiling water for 30 seconds, then adding ice cubes, reducing to a sub-simmer, and cooking for 11 more minutes.
Fill a medium saucepan with boiling water – you'll want to fill it about 2/3 full. Return the water to a boil. Or, if you don't have an electric kettle, you can bring the water to a boil in the saucepan. Carefully add the eggs to the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.
The water test for egg freshness
First, fill a bowl or glass with about four inches of cold water and gently place your egg(s) inside. Very fresh eggs will sink to the bottom and lay on their sides. If an egg stays at the bottom but stands on its small end, it's still acceptable to eat; just not quite as fresh.
Eggs in General
Hard-cooked eggs may be difficult to peel if they are very fresh. This is because an egg shrinks inside during storage, which pulls the inner membrane away from the inside of the shell. For this reason, a hard-cooked egg will peel more easily if it has been stored for 1 or 2 weeks before it is cooked.
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.
Shocking your recently boiled eggs by submerging them into a bowl of ice water is key. The quick cooling of the hard-boiled eggs causes the egg whites to contract, freeing them from the membrane. If you let them cool for about 15 minutes, the peeling is much easier.
"Get them onto a spoon and drop them into the water", Gordon said, timing six minutes to boil the eggs. "Bring that [the water] to the boil, but don't water them ferociously, or you'll get a black line around the outside, boil them gently."
Here's her hack for how to peel hard-boiled eggs in large batches: Put five thoroughly cooled hard-boiled eggs into a small plastic container with some cold water, top with the lid and then gently rock and shake until the shells break and fall away. You'll almost always end up with perfectly peeled eggs.
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. Peel and serve the eggs immediately.
Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, then add your eggs and cook 7 to 8 minutes. Drain, cool in ice water and peel.