To Boil Eggs for Breakfast
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the eggs
Bring a saucepan of water to a rolling boil.
Gently add the eggs to the boiling water.
For soft-boiled eggs, cook for 5 minutes.
For hard-boiled eggs, cook for 10 minutes.
Use an egg boiler
If using an egg boiler, ensure the water is boiling before adding the eggs.
After 4-5 minutes, remove the eggs and pour off the water.
Replace with more boiling water to ensure even cooking.
Keep the lid closed and let them sit for a few more minutes.
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
- Eggs
- Proteins in the white and yolk set with heat, firming them from soft to hard.
The step that matters
Timing the eggs. Cooking time controls doneness. The yolk keeps firming the longer the egg stays in boiling water, so a few minutes changes a soft yolk into a hard one.
“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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