Speaking of Easter food, most of us make hard-boiled eggs to dye, or to make deviled eggs.
What is the best method? What delivers a delicious well-cooked egg that is easy to peel?
Here is an article in which the author discusses seven methods she tried and which one worked the best, as well as a couple of others that are almost as good.
According to the author, this is the method that worked best, but there are a couple of others that I might try first, including Instant Pot and steaming.
NOTE: I have made a lot of hard-boiled eggs lately, and this method works great. I use a steamer and bring the water to a boil. I put the eggs in the upper steamer pan, reduce the heat a bit, and cook covered for 12 minutes. After cooking, put eggs into ice water for 10 or 15 minutes. They peel beautifully and don’t have a dark ring around the yolk.
Method: Boil Then Simmer
About This Method: In this Food Lab–tested approach from J. Kenji López-Alt, you bring a large pot (about three quarts) of water to a boil, lower in up to six eggs (I used six), boil for 30 seconds, and then cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 11 minutes. The eggs then go into an ice water bath for 15 minutes before peeling. The claim is that starting the eggs in hot water helps prevent the whites from sticking to the shell, thus making peeling easier.
Total Time: 35 minutes
Results
The eggs were definitely easy to peel. Starting at the fat end, I was able to pick away at the shell and by the time I got to the “nose” of each egg, the shell typically came off in one big, rounded piece. The yolks were firm and very slightly jammy. And the whites — oh my, the whites — were so tender that their texture was almost indistinguishable from the yolks.
My Takeaways: I was a little dubious about using 3 quarts of water for just 6 eggs, but López-Alt explains that this volume ensures that the timing and temperature are spot-on. And I’ll tell you, the texture of those eggs was just fantastic, so I’ll do this again and again. I might not use this for a big tray of deviled eggs (because I’d need to do multiple batches), but for any time that I want to spotlight the egg on its own, this will be my go-to method.
Rating: 10/10
Stella's Place 
I had saved the post about boiling eggs before, but, I had just never tried it. I will this time.
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Stella, would it be good if the eggs were room temp before putting them in the boiling water? Two of mine cracked when I put them in,
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I use cold eggs. Could be that your eggs had hairline cracks before cooking.
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Well, the first 6 eggs were cold and 3 cracked. Also, the yolks were a little undercooked for me, so the second batch was room temp and when they come out I will see how they do. But, I have to admit……..they were pretty easy to peel.
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Oh, yes, and I have an electric stove which takes a while for the eye to cool down. Is it ok to leave the eggs on still?
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As soon as the cooking time is over, remove the eggs from the hot water and place them in ice water.
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What I meant was, if you leave things on an electric eye, they keep cooking until the eye cools down a bit. But, I did that withe the second batch since I felt they weren’t cooked enough.
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Okay, The second batch of 6 eggs was room temp. None cracked and I just turned the eye down after the 30 secs and put a lid on them and turned the eye to simmer. These are cooked a little more like I like them. And, they were very easy to peel. 🙂
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Sounds like you have it down for your stove. Now you just need to decrease the cooking time slightly.
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I have to say that I really like the steamer. The eggs don’t rattle around in the pan, and it is easy to get them out and into the ice bath.
ADD: My steamer is a cheap one that I think I bought at K-mart about 30 years ago. It is a double decker – water in the bottom and food in the top.
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