I know its supposed to be the easiest thing to make, but I have incredible difficulty boiling eggs!! What gives??? They either turn out not cooked enough, or the water evaporates, or the eggs explode in the water! Please help, I have tried every thing and the eggs never turn out right. Whats the secret? Also, I have such difficulty taking off the shell. Why does it always look so easy when everyone else does it??

Fr_Chuck

If you are into science this will help

A Formula for Soft-Boiling Eggs
The Derivation
To obtain a simple formula the problem must be idealised somewhat, so the egg will be treated as a spherical homogeneous object of mass M and initial temperature Tegg. If the egg is placed straight into a pan of boiling water at Twater, it will be ready when the temperature at the boundary of the yolk has risen to Tyolk~63°C. With these assumptions, the cooking time t can be deduced by solving a heat diffusion equation.

The Result
The full derivation (PDF, 19kB), which can be viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, is quite complicated but the final result is relatively simple:



where ρ is density, c the specific heat capacity, and K thermal conductivity of 'egg'. According to this formula, a medium egg (M~57 g) straight from the fridge (Tegg=4°C) takes four and a half minutes to cook, but the same egg would take three and a half minutes if it had been stored at room temperature (Tegg=21°C). If all the eggs are stored in the fridge, then a small (size 6, 47 g) egg will require four minutes to cook, and a large egg (size 2, 67 g) will take five minutes.

Fr_Chuck

OF course if you just want some how to help try this


How to Hard Boil an Egg

1. Choose a pan just large enough to fit the number of eggs you'd like to cook or a bit larger. Don't forget that layers of eggs stacked in a pot will cook unevenly.

2. Lay the eggs gently into the pot, and cover with about an inch of water. This will insure that they will have enough water to cover them even after boiling for a while. Make sure the eggs go into cold water and then heat them up. Don't place in already hot water.

3. Boil: Place the pot on high heat. Bring it to a rapid boil. Some stoves may bring it to boiling to fast and crack the shell so be carful.
Stir occasionally in order to prevent a yellow mark from forming on the bottom of the eggs where they get to hot. I find that it really doesn't matter how vigorous it boils as long as it doesn't boil over or run out
of water.




OPTIONAL: You can immediately remove it or just turn the burner off and
cover as they will probably remain hot enough to finish cooking. This
way you'll never get the unsightly (although harmless) gray-green
coating on the surface of the cooked yolk, which sometimes results when
eggs are cooked at excessively high temperatures.

OPTIONAL: You may add salt, as in a heaping teaspoon or two to increase
the boiling temperature. This is almost a must at higher elevations. I find that this is usually unnecessary.

OPTIONAL: You may add a couple of ounces of vinegar as it will soften
the shell and will not penetrate it to change its flavor.

4. Set a timer, or note the time, and let the pot stand (with the lid
on) or boil for 20 minutes. They may go as long as 30 without any
problem.

5. Cold Rinse. This will stop the eggs from cooking by their own heat,
and will also help with pealing. Plunge them into cold water for about
30 seconds or just long enough to make them handleable. The cold shell
and the steaming egg inside will make peeling easy.

6.Peeling. Then take the egg in your hands and roll it back and forth in
your palms. Peeling the egg should now be a cinch or gently but firmly
break an egg against the surface of the sink or counter top, rotate the
egg in your hands, and again crack the egg against a hard surface.
Repeat until you've cracked the egg several times, all over its surface.
Now the shell will virtually fall off by rubbing.

OPTIONAL: If you just put the egg, shell and all, in the refrigerator
and peal as needed it will work almost as well.

Storage: Having peeled the eggs, you can store them in a refrigerator
for up to five days. For a fresh storage tip, let the eggs soak in an
inch or two of cold water--they'll keep for five days.

Egg check: If any eggs have large cracks, discard them. Cracked eggs
may have begun to spoil, and eating spoiled eggs can make you very, very
sick.


MORE EGG TIPS:

Soft-boiled eggs require careful timing. The recommended range of times
is between three and four and a half minutes. Experiment with a batch:
take an egg out at three minutes, at three and a half minutes, four
minutes, etc.

Egg whites won't run while boiling or poaching if you add a little
vinegar to the water.

When you separate eggs, break them into a funnel. The whites will go
through and leave the yellow intact in the funnel.

If you want to save your egg yolks after separating, preserve them by
putting them in a small bowl and add two tablespoons of salad oil. Cover
and refrigerate. The yolks will remain soft and fresh.

After beating egg whites do not tap the beater on the bowl. It causes
the egg whites to lose a lot of their fluffiness.

A thoroughly washed and rinsed tuna can with both ends removed makes a perfect mold for a poached egg.

Fresh? To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of
cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh; if it rises to the
surface, throw it away. This is due to bacterial gases in the shell.

Fresh eggs' shells are rough and chalky; old eggs are smooth and shiny.

To determine whether an egg is hard-boiled, spin it. If it spins, it is
hard-boiled; if it wobbles and will not spin it is raw. (Next time write
the date or at lest put an X on the eggs you Hard Boil)

Egg whites won't run while boiling or poaching if you'll add a little
vinegar to the water.

Eggs will beat up fluffier if they are allowed to come to cool room
temperature before beating.

For baking, it's best to use medium to large eggs; extra large eggs may
cause cakes to fall when cooled.

Egg shells can be easily removed from hard-boiled eggs if they are
quickly rinsed in cold water first.

For fluffier omelets, add a pinch of cornstarch before beating.

Store in original box in back of refrigerator. Due to warm air exposure
when the door is opened many experts believe they keep better in toward
the back of the frig.

Josmeady

I boil eggs for about 15 minutes on medium. you know they are done when you can take them out of the pot and spin them like the old fashion spinning tops. if they are done they will spin.

your second question is about how to take the shell off without messing up the egg. well when the egg is a really warm egg it peels off great! if you wait until the egg is cold they it doesn't want to peel.

good luck.