Egg-sperience

This morning, I made myself one of my all-time favorite breakfasts, simple and easy: soft boiled eggs and toast. There is great debate between people that I know, as well as online, as to which method is better:  starting with cold water or starting with boiling water. I have boiled many eggs over my life and, realistically, there is no discernible difference in the end product. However, I definitely prefer to send my eggs to a quick death on a roiling boil, rather than a slow one!

The time to the perfect soft boiled egg is obviously different for each of these methods. There is one important thing to remember any time you are boiling an egg, whether soft or hard, with either method, and that is to remember to bring your eggs to room temperature before they hit the water. This allows the egg to cook more evenly (just like a steak, more on that when I talk about steaks), and especially for the method of adding the eggs directly to the boiling water, it will reduce the shock of adding a cold egg to boiling water and reduce the chance of the egg cracking. The reason that I prefer to add eggs to boiling water is mostly due to my inexact and inattentive manner--I don’t have to pay attention to a pot of water and catch the exact moment that it starts to boil. Even if I DID watch it (and, contrary to popular belief, watched pots DO eventually boil… but getting there is about as entertaining as watching paint dry!), trying to decide in my mind the moment that it is ACTUALLY boiling, rather than just simmering or burping air bubbles, is enough to make me not want to bother.

Now, it’s not that hard to make an egg “not bad”… or even “okay”, but we are looking for perfection! Perfection is a firm white with a luxuriously silky liquid yolk. A little under gets you a milky white that isn’t quite set all the way, and a little over gets you a yolk that is turning a bit solid around the edges, and you miss out on the runny goodness that is the whole reason for soft boiling.

Start by taking the desired number of eggs out of the fridge and setting them somewhere safe to start to warm up from the frigid prison we keep them in. (Side note: Most countries outside of North America do not even refrigerate their eggs, and they still keep for a month or so, it has to do with the washing process the USDA and CFIA require eggs to undergo.) Fill a saucepan or pot so that all the eggs will be covered, and have an extra inch or so of water on top, and plenty of room still in the pot for water to boil. Bring the water to a boil on high. There is no need to bring the water up to temp slowly, because there is nothing else in the pot at this point. Some people will advocate for adding salt, sugar, or vinegar to the water.  Sugar and salt are pointless, as far as I can tell from limited research, other than salt very slightly lowers the boiling temp of the water (which doesn’t help us in this method) and vinegar is recommended for keeping the egg whites solid/contained if the egg cracks during cooking. I find that I have a very low occurrence of my eggs developing cracks, and no real difference with vinegar and without as far as how much of the white leaks out when it does. But if you find that your eggs crack a lot anyway and you lose a lot of white, go ahead and try and let me know if you see any difference.

After the water is boiling, use a large spoon to slowly lower one egg at a time to the bottom of the pot. Be careful not to let the eggs drop to the bottom of the pot, or you will end up cracking a few. Try to do this quickly or you will have some eggs done differently than others. Once all the eggs are in the pot, start the timer for 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and walk away. This method is tried and true at 2200 feet above sea level; you will have to adjust for your elevation, a lot of methods call for 6 minutes.  If you have very fresh eggs(within 2 days or so of buying), add another 30 seconds; I don’t know why the fresher the egg the more time it takes, but you can trust me on this one, or just use slightly older eggs.

Wait until the timer has gone off -don’t cheat!- and then remove the pot from the heat, turn off the stove, and start running COLD water over the eggs.  -Depending on your toaster, you will have wanted to start the toast at some point before this so that it will be done by the time your eggs are ready to eat. I like two pieces of toast for three eggs, but that’s just me.- Run cold water on the eggs, dump out most of the water and run some more cold water on the eggs. You are trying to stop the eggs cooking, but not to cool them off so much that you have cold eggs. You should be able to pick up an egg out of the water and hold it in your hand for a few seconds before the heat from inside radiates out enough for the shell to be warm.

Next comes the cracking of the egg. The opening of your perfect poultry product present to yourself. I like to use a regular butter knife, hold the egg upright, and give it a good horizontal THWACK near the top, cutting through the shell and the white. (The top of the egg is the skinny end, if you cut the egg on the bottom, you will almost certainly break the yolk.) Then using a small spoon, dig in and detach the egg from the shell by inserting it just between the egg and the shell and moving around the outside edge, then scoop out the egg, and don’t forget to get the bit from the top of the egg you just cut off as well. Remove all eggs from shells (they will continue to cook slowly until you cut into them) and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cut them open on a slice of toast, or into a bowl or onto a plate as desired, and enjoy.

To recap:

1. Remove eggs from fridge
2. Bring water to boil over HIGH heat
3. Add eggs one at a time to boiling water
4. Start 5 minute and 30 second timer
5. After timer goes off, remove from heat and run under cold water
6. Remove eggs from shell, salt and pepper to taste
7. Enjoy!