How to boil an egg? Some people say just leaving the egg in the refrigerator will prevent them from cracking when you want to use them for a recipe. I personally have discovered no correlation to preventing the cracking by leaving the uncooked eggs out of the cold fridge. Each time I do this, some tiny crackling comes through, but on average, after about 10 minutes in the freezer, they are just as firm and delicious as they were when they came out of the oven. It may be a matter of personal preference, or it may be something else entirely. Whatever it is, I really enjoy cracking hard boiled eggs.
How to boil eggs in vinegar is a question of trial and error, though there is a technique I find easy to follow. I generally start by lining a baking sheet with wax paper (or equivalent to pastry wax), then lining the same with a cut piece of cheesecloth, and finally putting the eggs in a bowl of hot water with the vinegar added. I then proceed to manually (with tongs) peel the cheesecloth off the egg shell, and insert the cracked egg into the vinegar mixture.
If the eggs crack easily when inserted, then you need to make adjustments to the cooking time, and duration of the soak. Usually you can go with the rule that the harder boil requires an extra two minutes in the water, and the softer boil takes an additional three minutes. You will also want to adjust the heat and humidity setting on your stove to whatever your time and degree of hardness demands. I generally start with the harder boil, then move to the softer setting if the eggs aren’t soft enough within the first 10 minutes.
Once you have successfully separated the yolk from the white, remove both from the pan and place them in your bowl of warm water. Whisk the yolk until it is a clear, pure white colour. Once the yolk has reached this stage, it can be beaten by a bit of salt. You can add a pinch of turmeric to this mixture if you wish to enhance the colour of the egg. When the yolk is done beating, remove it from the heat, and beat it again until it is a uniform white colour all over.
To know how long you should let the yolk dry for between rounds of betting, you need to know how long the first round of eggs was cooked in hot water. You can measure this from the height of the eggs when they are removed from the pan. For soft boiled eggs, this is usually about one inch per round. This rule also works for how long they should dry between layers of cracking them. If they are still slightly damp after the first round, then you can place them in the oven for an additional ten minutes. Once the second round is ready, this is the amount of time needed on the timer.
To peel an egg, you first need to take it out of its shell. You can use a knife or a peeler, or anything that will remove the most skin from the egg. You can remove as much as half the egg’s skin with a peeling tool, or just press it gently against the side of a bowl. Once the skin is removed from the egg, immediately place it into a cold water bath to immediately remove any residual eggs.
Another tip on how to boil an egg is to ensure that it is not exposed to too much hot water while you boil it. Hot water, whether coming from the stove or from the boiling pot, can cause the egg whites to curdle and stick to the pan’s surface. As well, if you have very small eggs, you might find that you need to add more hot water than you initially expected. To make sure that the boiled egg is thoroughly cooked, remove it from the hot water and let it rest for about twelve minutes.
Learning how to boil eggs is one of those things that, once you learn, you never forget. This cooking technique is truly wonderful, and it will be with you for years to come. The best method is always going to be trial and error. However, when you find the right temperature, timing, and tools, your efforts will pay off. Start experimenting today!