A Perfect Hard-Boiled Egg
Updated May 26, 2025
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
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Ingredients
- Eggs
- 1teaspoon salt
Preparation
- Step 1
Place eggs in a single layer in a heavy saucepan and cover with cold water by at least 1 inch. Add 1 teaspoon salt (Salting the water helps minimize leaks if the eggs crack in the pan; the egg whites coagulate and seal off the crack more quickly). Turn the heat to high. As soon as the water comes to a gentle boil, turn off the heat and cover the pan.
- Step 2
For creamy yolks, remove the lid after 10 minutes and run cold water over eggs for 1 minute. Set aside to cool at room temperature. For firmer yolks, leave the eggs to cool in the cooking water, uncovered, for up to 2 hours. To test if an egg has been cooked, spin it on a counter. A hard boiled egg spins faster than a raw egg.
- Step 3
To peel, gently tap a boiled egg against the counter, turning and tapping to make a crackle pattern. Start peeling at the broad end, where there is an air pocket. Running the egg under cold water is not necessary, unless they are too hot to handle.
- A gray-green ring around the yolk of a hard boiled egg means that it was cooked too long and/or at too high a temperature. To protect against this, cooked eggs should be immediately immersed in cold water to stop the cooking process.
Private Notes
Comments
No offense to Julia's method, but I have searched for years to find the elusive secret of how to make the perfect hard boiled egg; one that is perfectly cooked, with shells that come off easily. These dudes on Buzzfeed tackled the task and came up with the answer. Works like a charm: 1. bring water to a boil BEFORE adding eggs, adding a teaspoon of vinegar. 2. Add eggs, gently boil for exactly 14 minutes. 3. run under color water (or place in ice bath). Voila.
Confusing. If you leave the eggs to cool in the cooking water for two hours, will you not get that gray ring around the yolk?
Cover cold eggs with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Pour off hot water immediately and replace with cold water. As soon as the eggs are cool enough to handle, crack all around, roll between palms and the shells come right off (similar to peeling a garlic clove). Yolks will be tender and yellow!! I’ve been doing this for 25 years and have never had a problem. Once boiled the eggs are harder to peel the colder they are, so peel them right away.
THIS recipe is my preferred method. It's also the most energy-efficient method. My guide for how long to let them cool in their cooking water, is that they're done when you can handle them comfortably, which is typically about 25 minutes.
I put the eggs in cold water, cover the pot with a lid, and bring to a boil. As soon as the water comes to a boil, remove the lid and reduce the heat to low. (If you don’t have a gas stove this could be problematic.) Cook for 6 and a quarter minutes, then immediately immerse in cold water. Perfect.
1st - use room temperature eggs. 2. Boil water and add eggs. Cook for 10 minutes 3. Remove eggs from boiling water and put them in cool water if you plan on peeling right away and ice water if you are keeping the shells4. Immediately for a perfect peel, add a little bit of water to a mason jar, a tbsp or so 5. Put an egg in the jar, seal the lid and give the jar a gentle shake two or three times 6. Pull egg out of jar and the shell comes right off. Perfectly cooked and perfectly peeled