Soft Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
Directions
Fill a saucepan with boiling water.
Gently add the desired number of eggs using a spoon, ensuring they are covered with water.
Move the saucepan to the back of the stove where the water will not boil.
Cook for 6 to 8 minutes for soft boiled eggs, or 40 to 45 minutes for hard boiled eggs.
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
- Egg white and yolk set with heat, so cooking time decides how firm the eggs become.
The step that matters
Keeping the water below a boil. Once the water is at a rolling boil, the eggs are jostled and can crack, and the whites cook unevenly. Holding the pan at the back of the stove, where the water stays just under boiling, gives gentler heat and a more controlled set.
“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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