If I want a boiled egg, chances are I want it soft-boiled (runny yolk but cooked white) which is the custom here in the UK. (As children we are given a softboiled egg in an egg-cup along with rectangles of toast called "soldiers" to dip in the yolk. I guess it's an Edwardian thing, redolent of Nannies and Nurseries.)
In all my 50 years I still cannot reliably produce a softboiled egg, regardless of the method. Do I bring the water to the boil with the eggs already in the pan, then count from when it reaches the boil? How do I judge a "rolling boil"? Or do I wait for the water to boil then put the eggs in, risking cracking? How do I adjust the timing if I want to boil multiple eggs?
I can hardboil them but sometimes overcook them and get that sulphurous green yolk edge, or I forget to set an alarm and underboil them leading to an unpleasant surprise later of a partially-cooked egg white spilling out of my inedible egg.
For fried eggs in my stainless steel pan (I don't have any non-stick pans) unless I pre-heat for ~20mins, the egg sticks and I often end up having to chisel it out with the spatula and breaking the yolk which depending on my morning mood can be a real downer. Added to which the underside is usually cooked way before the top, and the egg white in the thickest part is still clear and snotty, so I will try to flip the egg, doubling my chances of breaking the yolk and killing my morning.
Scrambled eggs are nice but easy to overcook to a dry pebbly consistency, and unfailingly create a quarter-inch layer of crusted egg in the pan which goes to soak in the sink and return later in the day as a jellyish monstrosity to cling to my hand or be clawed dripping out of the plughole catcher.
I love a filled omelette, but again it's a crapshoot - too hot a pan and the egg goes hard and rubbery on the outside, too cold and the folding is difficult, especially with solid items in the filling.
My point is, boiling eggs is undeserving of its status as a byword for simplicity. It's getting to the stage (for me) where it's an object lesson in how much I can fuck up a seemingly simple thing.
> Do I bring the water to the boil with the eggs already in the pan, then count from when it reaches the boil?
Safest, most fool-proof method: bring the water to a boil, kill the heat, gently lower the eggs into the water and cover. Remove at your preferred time and transfer to an ice bath.
Water boils at a consistently precise temperature (at a given altitude). If you're cooking indoors, you probably also have a somewhat-stable air temperature around the pot. This means the heat curve from ~100°C is remarkably stable across boilings. Given an egg sets between 63°C (whites thicken) and 73°C (yolk cooks), you will always--eventually--wind up with a hard-boiled egg. (You're also cooking in still water, which is obviously less violent.)
There are various guides online for this, but it's an easy-enough expermient to pull one out every minute from ~3 minutes to 15. (Presumably over several days. But not a bad brunch set-up. And you already have an ice bath for the wine!)
> For fried eggs in my stainless steel pan
Steel-clad pans aren't all steel, they're aluminium clad in steel. That means you can't get the steel safely to the ripping-hot temperatures that keep the albumen from binding to the iron.
For the frying, we never have any grief on our cast iron. I usually give it a little spray of oil, but you can successfully fry an egg even if you don't. We have a couple stainless calphalons that are pretty effective at filling space inside the cupboard and that's about it.
Really? I just bring water to a boil, put eggs in and set a six minute timer. Move them to cold water and peel. Perfect soft-boiled eggs every single time.
In all my 50 years I still cannot reliably produce a softboiled egg, regardless of the method. Do I bring the water to the boil with the eggs already in the pan, then count from when it reaches the boil? How do I judge a "rolling boil"? Or do I wait for the water to boil then put the eggs in, risking cracking? How do I adjust the timing if I want to boil multiple eggs?
I can hardboil them but sometimes overcook them and get that sulphurous green yolk edge, or I forget to set an alarm and underboil them leading to an unpleasant surprise later of a partially-cooked egg white spilling out of my inedible egg.
For fried eggs in my stainless steel pan (I don't have any non-stick pans) unless I pre-heat for ~20mins, the egg sticks and I often end up having to chisel it out with the spatula and breaking the yolk which depending on my morning mood can be a real downer. Added to which the underside is usually cooked way before the top, and the egg white in the thickest part is still clear and snotty, so I will try to flip the egg, doubling my chances of breaking the yolk and killing my morning.
Scrambled eggs are nice but easy to overcook to a dry pebbly consistency, and unfailingly create a quarter-inch layer of crusted egg in the pan which goes to soak in the sink and return later in the day as a jellyish monstrosity to cling to my hand or be clawed dripping out of the plughole catcher.
I love a filled omelette, but again it's a crapshoot - too hot a pan and the egg goes hard and rubbery on the outside, too cold and the folding is difficult, especially with solid items in the filling.
My point is, boiling eggs is undeserving of its status as a byword for simplicity. It's getting to the stage (for me) where it's an object lesson in how much I can fuck up a seemingly simple thing.