Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
To check freshness, drop eggs in cold water; if they float, discard them.
Bring water to a boil.
Gently add eggs using a spoon or skimmer.
Cook and serve
For soft-boiled eggs, cook for 3 minutes; for hard-boiled, cook for 5 minutes or longer.
Remove eggs and serve immediately.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Fresh eggs
- Egg whites and yolks set into a firm texture when heated, so cooking time controls the final consistency.
The step that matters
Timing the cook for soft or hard yolks. Egg white and yolk proteins set at different temperatures, so a short change in time shifts the yolk from runny to firm. Overcooking makes the yolk chalky and can leave a grey-green ring where iron and sulfur compounds react at the surface of the yolk.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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