When making your h.b. eggs, do the eggs sometimes crack during cooking from "banging against the pot?" This causes the whites to leak out some.

Just looking for any solution you may have. thanks!

I always thought that one reason the eggs cracked was because you were putting the cold eggs in warmer water?

I boil eggs by placing them carefully in a saucepan, then filling the pan with lukewarm (not ice cold) water. I bring the eggs to a boil, but as soon as they start to boil I reduce the heat to a very low boil (just above simmer) and cook for another 10 minutes. A high boil is what makes the eggs bump into each other and crack.

As soon as the eggs have finished cooking, I place the saucepan in the sink and run cold water over them to prevent further cooking. As soon as they are cool, I unpeel them right away. I find that the shell separates more easily from the egg if you do it right after the cooking process.

HTH!

Thanks Thumbelina!
do you ever put a tiny whole in the eggs with a pin? That's what my grand mother used to do, but I never understood why.

Nah, too much trouble. The only time I've ever done that is for Easter Egg decorating -- to blow out the egg leaving only the shell. What a pain!

putting cold eggs in hot water will make them crack. Also once the eggs start boiling, be sure to reduce the heat to a simmer to prevent cracking, as thumbilina stated.

Trick for easy peeling eggs: put eggs in pot, cover with water, then pour salt on top, I put about a couple teaspoons. Pouring salt on eggs that are in the shell does NOT effect the taste of the egg whatsoever, it simply makes the shell REALLY REALLY easy to peel.

Prolly a way to avoid pressure from the inside of the egg as it coagulates (like you'd do with a sausage b/f frying it to avoid it cracking in the pan.)

Here's how I do it, and even if you forget about the eggs for a while (like I always seem to do), they're still fine.

Place in enough eggs to fit the bottom of the pan. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil. When it's a full boil, take the pan OFF the heat. Let it sit for about 20 mintues then run cold water over the eggs to cool them quickly. I sometimes even throw a few ice cubes in to cool them fast.

I wrote to an egg producer once and asked why the eggs don't peel easily. They told me that really fresh eggs don't peel well. They told me to wait about a week after buying them to boil them. Don't know if its true, but it seems to work.

I steam my eggs, ala Alton Brown. Never had a bad egg since I stopped boiling them.

brobin

Put about half a cup of vineger in cold water and then add your eggs. Bring them to a boil and leave them to simmer about 10 minutes. I read about the vineger a long time ago and it works 99 percent of the time.

I can vouch for older eggs being easier to peel. When I try peeling HBed farmers market eggs, it's a royal pain!

My vote is to put eggs in pot, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt to the water, bring to a boil then turn off the heat, let sit for about 15 min.

With this method, i've never had a problem.

Ooh, we should have a "boil-off"!

I use the Cook's Illustrated method: Place the eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, boil 1 minute, remove from heat and let sit in hot water 10 minutes, plunge into ice water for five minutes, and peel.

Perfect every time, and not too hard to peel even with fresh eggs. (Fresh eggs don't peel well because the whole shell is full of egg; ever notice a big dent at the large end of a boiled egg? That means that egg is geriatric.)

I take it that the lack of responce to FrecklFluf means that no one wants to do a "boil-off"?? I'll join you Freckl, what are the terms?