General Rule for Boiling Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Bring a pot of water to a boil.
For very soft boiled eggs, cook for 3 minutes.
For soft boiled eggs, cook for 3½ minutes.
For medium soft eggs, cook for 4 minutes.
For hard boiled eggs, cook for 20 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
- Provide the protein that sets from liquid to firm as the cooking time increases.
The step that matters
Timing the cook for the texture you want. Egg white and yolk set at different temperatures and rates, so a difference of even half a minute changes the yolk from runny to soft to firm. Start the timer only once the water is boiling, and move the eggs to cold water promptly to stop carry-over cooking.
“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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