How to boil an egg

When I started to cook for myself, I was annoyed with how much was already assumed. So, at the risk of patronising you, I will assume no prior knowledge. The one thing in cooking that often crops us a euphemism for easy is boiling an egg. But when I started off, I had no idea whether it ought to be for 30 seconds or 30 minutes. Unless someone tells you, or you have several attempts yourself, you just don’t know.

I also found much of the advice I received to be simply wrong.

Because I’m a slightly greedy bloke, I always use large eggs. I am assuming they are also chicken eggs. My local supermarket doesn’t sell anything like duck’s eggs or quails eggs or other things that fancy recipes occasionally ask for. Place it in a small pan of cold water. If you place an egg in hot or boiling water, it will often crack. This is much rarer if you drop it straight into cold water. The water should only just cover the egg, but make sure no part of it is sticking above water, as this will then not cook properly.

Turn the gas on to maximum and leave for exactly 10 minutes. It will slowly heat up and should start boiling at about the 7-8 minute mark. When the time is up, turn the gas off and immediately lift the egg out of the water with a spoon. If you leave it in the hot water, it will continue to cook. The result is that the egg white is completely cooked and the yolk has started to cook, but you still have a fairly runny inside. If you take 30 seconds off your time you will end up with the whites not cooking properly (soft boiled). If you leave it in for an extra 30 second plus, you will end up with a hard-boiled egg, where the yolk is cooked through and solid.

The main thing that can go wrong is the egg breaking. This can happen if you are careless in putting it in the water and it cracks against the base of the pan, or if the temperature difference between the water and the egg is too great. When this happens, some of the egg white will spill out into the water.