I don’t know about you, but it took me years of eating bad, over-cooked hard boiled eggs before I finally figured out the right combination of cooking and cooling to get it right. And when I say perfect, I also mean that they peel perfectly as well. Let’s face it. It totally sucks when you go to peel an egg and all the egg whites go with it! Ugh!
This is really straight forward post, no frills, just the down and dirty on how to prep eggs so when you toss them into your protein boxes for the week or your kid’s lunch, you never have to second guess if you’ll have over-cooked or hard-to-peel eggs on hand.
I usually do 8-10 eggs at a time (thinking 2 per work day). Now, of course I know, you know the steps to boiling eggs. The magic is in the cooking to cooling ratio. Here’s the best combo I’ve found:
15 minutes boiling, 8-10 minutes in the same hot water on the stove, then 10 min in an ice bath.
I know it seems like an awfully long time to cook the eggs, but this method hasn’t failed me yet. I will sometime leave them in the cool water longer, that’s fine. But, just don’t let them cook for more than 25 minutes.
Start with cold water, place the eggs gently in your pot, then bring the water to a boil and cook for 15 minutes. If any of your eggs float to the top, toss them in the trash, you’ve got a bad egg there.
Once your 15 minutes of boiling are up, remove the pot from the heated surface and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 10 minutes. While you do that, prepare a big bowl of ice water.
Transfer the eggs to the ice bath and let them cool for at least 10 minutes. No problem if it’s longer, I usually get distracted doing other meal prep and they chill for as long as 20 minutes.
After they chill, dry them off and store them in an air tight container or pop them into your portion containers and you’re set for the week.
Now you’re ready to peel and enjoy!
Perfectly cooked on the inside. If your yolk has a greenish-gray outer color, that just means they’ve overcooked a bit and the yolk will probably be pretty dry.
Instant Pot Method
In the event that you have an Instant Pot, yay! Your cooking time just went down dramatically and you will still get perfect hard boiled eggs. Here’s what you do:
- Add one cup of cold water in the bottom of your pot
- Place your trivet in the bottom of the pot (or if you want to pick up an egg accessory they are handy)
- Place 6-8 eggs in the pot (spaced out just a touch)
- Cook on manual high pressure for 8 minutes, quick release
- Place the eggs in an ice bath to stop the cooking
Enjoy you guys!
xo, Tiff
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