Hard boiled eggs...what is your secret?

[hopfen]

I have no idea what this is doing on a brewing forum, but I can't resist replying.
There is a tried and true method for hard boiled eggs, and I've used it for years. Here it is:

Put the eggs in a pan, but use only enough to make a single layer of eggs on the bottom of the pan. Add enough water to cover the eggs, about one inch above the tops of the eggs. Bring the water to a boil, as fast as possible.

Once the water has reached a boil, remove the pan from the heat and cover it. Let it sit for ten minutes.

While waiting for the ten minutes to elapse, fill a big bowl with ice water (plenty of ice cubes). Use a slotted spoon to transfer each egg gently from the hot water to the ice water, and let them sit for five minutes.

There! You have perfect hard boiled eggs. To peel them, tap the egg all over on the counter to crack the shell, then roll it gently back and forth a few times. Begin peeling from the air pocket (the large end), and you can generally take the entire shell off in one or two pieces.

[pinnah]

Excellent, thanks for all the tips.

I think perhaps fresh eggs are my main problem,
typically next day straight from the cluckers out back

I will try to let some sit around a while.
How long do eggs last?

I have no idea what this is doing on a brewing forum, but I can't resist replying.

  Thanks for the informative reply,
one thing that amazes me about the diverse group of folks that call them selves homebrewers....they sure know about lots of stuff!

You know...like how to boil an egg!

Cheers.

[abraxas]

Hmmm... seems like everybody is forgetting the most important step.  After you cool and peel the eggs you need to pickle them:
http://motherskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/04/pickled-eggs.html

I was just up in Houghton this last weekend visiting friends and very much overindulged in pickled eggs making for a very unpleasant Sunday morning.

[BrewArk]

Don't boil the eggs in beer.  Drink the beer.  Drink more beer, forget about the eggs.

[nicneufeld]

Don't boil the eggs in beer.  Drink the beer.  Drink more beer, forget about the eggs.

Dude, what are the odds you came up with my secret recipe independently!   

[majorvices]

I have no idea what this is doing on a brewing forum, but I can't resist replying.

Pretty simple, really. This is a homebrewing forum and many homebrewers also love to cook! Get this, too: you are in the Food Recipe part of the Food and Cooking section of the forum.  

[theDarkSide]

I thought it was funny yesterday when I received my Tech Talk email and saw in the section below where it shows the last few posts in the New AHA Forum, and 1 was about beer and the rest were about hard boiled eggs

[boulderbrewer]

What we started doing is steaming the eggs, even the fresh laid eggs peel pretty easily. Get a vegetable steamer basket in a pot, fill to just below the basket and steam the eggs from 15 to 20 minutes. Cool them in ice water. We can get a clean peel from most eggs even the ones that were still warm from being laid.

[pinnah]

What we started doing is steaming the eggs, even the fresh laid eggs peel pretty easily.

Hey, that sounds like a winner!  Do they come out firm like a regular hard boiled egg?
Few things to me are as nasty as uncooked egg white...yacko.

Hmmm... seems like everybody is forgetting the most important step.  After you cool and peel the eggs you need to pickle them:
http://motherskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/04/pickled-eggs.html

 , Anyone know how long pickled eggs last in the fridge? 
I am fixing to be overrun with too many eggs, and a way to preserve them sounds good.  I bet they would go well with my own cheap yella beer!

[boulderbrewer]

Depending on your altitude steam time will vary. But they are hard boiled. Soft boiled are good with toast cut into "sticks" for dipping. When we get overrun and don't have buyers for them they head off to the local food pantry. We are getting close to a dozen a day now!

[euge]

Always found that a good thorough chill in ice-water makes them easy to peel not the age of the egg.

I've done them in the pressure cooker too. Raised up on a trivet they are steamed.

[boulderbrewer]

To get this to work you need to get the water boiling before you add the eggs.

[majorvices]

Well, after a week of trying the advice offered here about adding the eggs to cold water, bringing them to a boil and letting them sit for a few minutes then dunking them in ice water I went back to my old method - bringing a small pot of water to a boil and adding them slowly to the boiling water and boiling them for 10-12 minutes, then cooling them in an ice water bath. For me, the latter way just let them peel a lot easier. I could never get a clean peel with the other method.

[euge]

And I just bought me some Jumbo Brown's...

I'm gonna use 6 for Migas and the others get boiled.

[Slowbrew]

I can't make any claims to this but my Mom always insisted on fresh, non-oiled eggs for hard boiling.  I would guess this had more to do with the shell taking die for Easter Eggs but you never really know.

We got our eggs from another family family down the road.  They raised their own hens, we milked cows.  Fresh milk makes great oyster stew at Christmas, fresh eggs make food better all year long.