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I love a good hard boiled egg and it’s taken me years to learn How To Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs! My Dad even uses this method now – and he’s a connoisseur when it comes to his morning hard boiled eggs for breakfast! If you are looking for an Instant Pot way to make eggs, try my How to Make Instant Pot Eggs, Soft, Medium and Hardboiled.
How To Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
Confession time. Peeling boiled eggs makes me mad. Peeling eggs makes me so mad that my family usually runs away from the kitchen when it’s time for me to tackle the task. I might have yelled once while peeling eggs, threw them back into the pot and walked out of the kitchen fuming, irrationally furious. Fine, you caught me. The above statement is a lie. It’s happened more than once. Peeling eggs and having them look like a badger chewed them and spit them out makes me irrationally mad. Ask Mike. He runs away and hides when it’s time to peel eggs in our house. Either that or he gently takes the eggs out of my hands, steers me towards the couch and tells me to sit while he does it. (I still hate that they look like a badger chewed them but at least I didn’t do it. Rational, right?)
- Place your eggs in the bottom of a large pot and sprinkle with 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp
vinegar.Bring a kettle full of water to boiling, - Place the pot on a heated stove element and pour the boiling water over the top
- Stir the eggs gently while bringing the water to a boil again. This helps the yolk
stay in the center and it works like a charm! No more yolks settling to one side! - Bring to a boil. See cooking times for different sized eggs below.Remove from the
heat and run cold water into the pot. Once the pot has cooled, removed the water. - Swirl the eggs around the pot hard enough to crack their shells in several
places.Fill with cold water again and leave for 5-10 minutes. - Remove the shells (the water should have started to seep underneath the cracked
shells and they should come off really easily.)If the eggs are still stubborn, peel
under running water.Refrigerate until used.
Hard Boiled Eggs Tips & Tricks
I’ve read a lot of forums, articles and posts on how to make perfect hard-boiled eggs. You are going to be the lucky recipient of hours of research on my part. I have combined pretty much everything I’ve ever read on how to make perfect hard-boiled eggs into ONE how to post for you all.
- Old eggs make for better boiled eggs, they peel better. I always try to buy a dozen eggs that aren’t as fresh and tuck them away in my fridge to be used later for the specific purpose of boiling them.
- These are the cooked eggs in cold water after cooking in the photo below. Notice how there is hardly any white seeping out of the egg? No explosion that usually accompanies those little cracks? The salt and the vinegar with the sudden hot water method all combined to seal up that crack licketly split. We all know that those eggs are usually a write off, (which means that we peel them and eat them, admit it, you do it too) but this one? That one cracked egg at the top was used in my deviled eggs with no problem!
- The technique of swirling the eggs gave me almost 100% perfectly centered yolks, something that also makes me a little giddy. No more off centered yolks and ugly eggs! Huzzah!
Look at all those beauties! No badger teeth marks, no yelling and no throwing a temper tantrum. These were new eggs as well – I wanted to test on the hardest eggs to peel, not the easiest – and they peeled up fabulously.
Hard Boiled Eggs Recipes
To end, let’s get a little honest with each other, perhaps uncomfortably so. Who else cannot stand peeling hard boiled eggs? I can’t be the only one who hates badger chewed eggs…
Love you more than chocolate,
Karlynn
How To Make Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
- 6 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- boiling water
- large stock pot
Instructions
- Place your eggs in the bottom of a large pot and sprinkle with 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp vinegar.Bring a kettle full of water to boiling,
- Place the pot on a heated stove element and pour the boiling water over the top. Stir the eggs gently while bringing the water to a boil again. This helps the yolk stay in the center and it works like a charm! No more yolks settling to one side!
- Bring to a boil. See cooking times for different sized eggs below.Remove from the heat and run cold water into the pot. Once the pot has cooled, removed the water.
- Swirl the eggs around the pot hard enough to crack their shells in several places.Fill with cold water again and leave for 5-10 minutes.
- Remove the shells (the water should have started to seep underneath the cracked shells and they should come off really easily.)If the eggs are still stubborn, peel under running water.Refrigerate until used.
Notes
Medium eggs – 8-9 minutes,
large eggs – 10 minutes
extra large eggs – 12 minutes. Add 2-3 minutes per time for harder centered eggs.
Nutrition
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I poured the boiling water over the eggs with the salt and vinegar and all but one of the six eggs cracked. Next time I’ll make sure the dang water isn’t like boiling lava.
Joseph says
ad a glut of veggie oil to water it will penetrate shell but not the thin skin under shell. makes for easy peel as well. but will your other tips as well ,,,” Happy Peeling “
Jay Kay says
Yes, tried it, works amazingly!
Karla Hennebold says
This method totally works – even with same day fresh eggs! 🙂
MC says
Wanted to thank you for the tips for perfect boiled eggs for devilled eggs. Found your post just before Christmas, and have used it twice for mountains of devilled eggs, and it works like a charm. Big stress relief, and no more badgers! Thank you!
thekitchenmagpie says
@MC AWESOME!!! Anothe person saved from badger eggs! 🙂
Lisa Smith says
Oh I need that.
Kari Dalton says
Thanks Karlee
Kari Dalton says
How would you use a teaspoon to peel eggs?
Karlee Urbanoski says
Use a teaspoon to peel them. So easy!!
Nadine says
Steam eggs. My aunt told me about this and OMG! it’s a stress reliever. She said to boil for 20 minutes and then let them cool down in the pot but they do get the green around the yolks. I have boiled for 10 and then dunked in cold water, then put them back in the tray and into the fridge they go(the yolks are not entirely cooked yet though). Peel when needed, and they seem to last a good week or so cooked in the shell. Honestly I am still figuring out the perfect time to cook them, but steaming is so amazing to peel the eggs. They may have an occasional stickiness to them, but not like before.
Jody W says
Nope, hate badgered chewed eggs (love that term) almost as much as I hate the greenish tinge when they’re over cooked. I’ve had to narrow down my cooking time to 13 minutes exactly because of my high altitude (above 3500 ft). I may try this next time as I’ve already boiled my eggs today 🙁
thekitchenmagpie says
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" profile_url="https://www.livefyre.com/profile/1973845/" ns="true">Jody W Yup, it just sums them up, doesn’t it? Badger chewed…. Pouring boiling water over will adjust the cook time, if you’ve mastered yours, stick with it. I would try the salt and vinegar in the water and then definitely the smashing them around and letting them soak. It worked wonders!
Shanon Warner says
This is great. Can’t win for the recipe tomorrow too!
Shelley Taylor Alexy says
If you take hard boiled egg n put in a jar with lid, couple shakes, it cracks n the egg peels easily \U0001f60a
The Kitchen Magpie says
Thanks! I’ll be writing it up today for sure and have it ready to go!