Kitchen

[house cat]

I need to switch my regular breakfast from cereal to eggs.

Soft-boiled is my favorite, but I can't find a consistent method for making them right every time. I can't eat them when the whites are runny, but if I cook them too long I wind up with hardboiled eggs.

Any tips?

[mima]

Yes I do. I have used a really cool egg timer for years. It is currently on Amazon for $6.49 with free Prime shipping. Search "egg timers".

It looks like this. You put it right in the pan at the same time you do the eggs. It changes colors until you get the doneness you want.

Oops. I did a picture, but it was huge. It is an egg shaped plastic item that is red. If I post a link, it will most likely get zapped. Let me see if there is a name to it. I'll be back.

It is called the Norpro Egg Rite Egg Timer.

[Pook]

I use one of those inexpensive egg cooking machines. You just punch a tiny pinhole in each egg and put in the basket and it tells you how much water to put in and then turn - perfect every time. QVC has several. The 2 cheapest ones are K38076 A Cooks Essential one for $14.40 and K39370 - Eggspress Egg Cooker for $19.98. You can also make omlet like eggs or poached eggs in these.

[evelyner]

I do. I take a small pan, bring water to boil. drop large size eggs that came out of the refrigerator and cook for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Scoop out immediately.

The eggs are very cold from the refrigerator, so that is why they require that long. If you make extra large eggs, they need 10 more seconds. I like to eat my eggs on the soft boil holders.

[fthunt]

No fancy machine here....just a pot and water! I just read the above posting but here is my 'never fail' method for decades.

COLD Eggs in sauce pan - cover eggs with COLD water - JUST covering the eggs - place pot/eggs on cold stove burner and then turn burner ON to HIGH. When the water starts to BOIL - lower the stove temperature down to Medium and start the 'clock'. Let the eggs gently boil for 3 MINUTES (thus called the 3 minute egg LOL). To ensure that whites won't be under-cooked I actually let the eggs cook for another minute. STOP cooking and............

Immediately snap egg shell open and scoop eggs out to bowl. Never fail soft boiled eggs!

Different from other posting: me: cold eggs in cold water to start - that way eggs start to 'warm' up with the water instead of cold egg going in boiling water. Less chance of shell cracking due to sudden temperature change.

[Lacey1]

My mom used to give us SB eggs when we were kids. I think it was an old theory of easy-to-digest for kids thing. Anyhow, I would burn the heck out of my fingers trying to crack and open them without making a mess. I really have never had them as an adult.

I do have one of those microwave things-it makes a poached-type egg without the fuss in about a minute.

[lenapecci]

I just watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen on PBS that was just about eggs. They showed how to prepare soft boiled eggs, fried eggs and an omlettte. They tested over 1000 eggs to get the perfect soft boiled egg. I liked the tips for fried eggs as well.

For the soft boiled eggs they did not cover the eggs with water.

[Yardlie]

On 2/7/2014 lenapecci said:

I just watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen on PBS that was just about eggs. They showed how to prepare soft boiled eggs, fried eggs and an omlettte. They tested over 1000 eggs to get the perfect soft boiled egg. I liked the tips for fried eggs as well.

For the soft boiled eggs they did not cover the eggs with water.

How on earth did they do that? I've heard of roasting eggs in the oven, but they come out hard.

[Yahooey]

On 2/7/2014 Brinklii said:

On 2/7/2014 lenapecci said:

I just watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen on PBS that was just about eggs. They showed how to prepare soft boiled eggs, fried eggs and an omlettte. They tested over 1000 eggs to get the perfect soft boiled egg. I liked the tips for fried eggs as well.

For the soft boiled eggs they did not cover the eggs with water.

How on earth did they do that? I've heard of roasting eggs in the oven, but they come out hard.

I saw the same episode. ATK said to cover the eggs partially with water and not totally submerged. The steam from the water will cook the egg whites (covered pot) and the yolk will still be runny. Steam is hotter than boiling water which is why the eggs aren't fully submerged. If submerged, the whites will cook as well as the yolk or both will be runny. It was interesting, they went through thousands of eggs to find the perfect way to cook all kinds of eggs.

[LilacTree]

I don't eat soft-boiled eggs, but i do eat a fair amount of hard boiled. I get them perfect every time by simply putting refrigerator-cold eggs into a pot of cold water, and setting the timer for 20 minutes. I then rinse with cold water for about 10 minutes. They come out perfect and easy to peel, every single time.