How To Boil An Egg

OK, confession time. I'm a food snob!

{shock rings through the room!}

Now, let me explain. It is not that I turn up my nose at some food. What I meant by being a food snob is that I like something to be the best that it can be, and hate settling for less, even though in many cases, I do.

Take a hard-boiled egg, for example. I mean, how difficult can it be? It is a hard-boiled egg!

Ah, but that is where you are wrong. Even boiling a hard boiled egg can be an art and a science. I once was staying at a hotel in Berkeley, CA that provided breakfast, and the hard-boiled eggs were boiled for so long and so overcooked that you can almost bounce the egg off the floor! In fact, many of these breakfast places simply abused the egg, turning it into a rubber ball!

Here's the thing. Overcooked hard-boiled egg is less tasty, and once you get that dark ring around the yolk, that is when you get the acrid, sulfuric taste one associates with smelly egg.

But I go even a step closer. I way prefer a hard-boiled egg where the yolk still has a patch of darker, almost orange color where it is slight moist (see photo). Not only is the egg white nice and soft, the yolk is also tastier without the strong egg smell.

Trust me, you can tell the difference between these eggs, and the ones that are overcooked and rubbery.

So how do you get such "perfectly cooked hard-boiled eggs"? Put the eggs inside a heavy-bottom saucepan, and filled it with water will the water level is about 1/2 inch above the eggs.

Put it on the stove on medium-high heat. Let the water comes to a rolling boil.

Put up the lid onto the saucepan, and kill the heat.

Let the eggs sit in the saucepan for 5-6 minutes.

Remove the eggs and immerse them in cold, ice water. Let it sit in the water for 3-5 minutes.

Peel the eggs. Do this even if you don't intend to eat the eggs. You may store the eggs in air-tight container till you are ready to eat them. Do not cut or slice them till they are ready to be eaten.

After you get used to these eggs, you'll never be satisfied with badly-cooked hard-boiled eggs.

Zz.