The Egg-speriment continues

In my post on Friday Its an Egg-speriment!, I cooked 2 dozen eggs in 4 ways to see which method produced the best quality hard-cooked egg.  Notice....I am no longer calling them hard-boiled eggs, so that might give you a hint which worked best.

Here's what I did:

Method 1 - Oven Baking

Touted by Alton Brown as his method of choice, especially if you need to do more than 1 dozen at a time, baking eggs is pretty simple.

Basically, you set your oven to 320 degrees F and place your eggs either in muffin cups or on a broiler pan covered in a damp kitchen towel.  Then bake your eggs for 30 minutes.

Before baking

After baking

When the eggs are done you immerse them in an icebath until they are cool enough to handle, then you can peel.  

Method 2 - Boiling from Cold

This was my usual method, based on a Martha Stewart methodology from years ago, but it had not been so successful lately for me.  Then I saw Michelle Tam at Nom Nom Paleo add the step of pricking the egg shell with a pin and adding baking soda to the water....so I thought maybe that could be the fix.

Long and short, you prick the fatter end of your eggs with a pin, just using enough force to go through the shell.

Place your eggs in a sauce pan and cover with water by 1 inch.  Add 1/2 tsp. baking soda for every 3 cups of water.  Place pot on stove, uncovered, and bring to a boil over high heat. When the water is at a rolling boil, cook eggs for 1 minute

When the minute is up, take the eggs off the heat, cover the pot with a lid and set aside for 10 minutes.

When the eggs are done you immerse them in an icebath until they are cool enough to handle, then you can peel.  

Method 3 - Steaming

Serious Eats is...well...serious when it comes to The Food Lab.  If you like the science behind cooking, this is the place for you.

To do this, fill a large pot with 1-2 inches of water.

Place steamer insert on top of pot, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat.

Add eggs to steamer basket, cover, and cook 12 minutes.

When the eggs are done you immerse them in an icebath until they are cool enough to handle, then you can peel.

Method 4 - Cold Eggs in Hot Water

Last method...pretty standard....but following the cooking times specified by Kenji from Serious Eats.

Half fill a medium saucepan with warm water, and bring to a rapid boil.  Lower your eggs carefully right into the water and reduce heat to the lowest simmer.  Cook the eggs for 11 minutes.  

When the eggs are done you.....yep.....immerse them in an icebath until they are cool enough to handle, then you can peel.  

For the record, for each of the 4 methods, I popped the eggs back into their carton and I left them to cool completely overnight so I was working with a consistent temperature for peeling the next day.


So what were the results....???  Well you will have to come back tomorrow to find out.