For those who like hard boiled eggs, but not cooking/shelling them....

[Georgiana]

Re: For those who like hard boiled eggs, but not cooking/shelling them....

It gets rid of the air pocket in the eggs, so the boiled egg will have a rounder appearance, rather than an indented end. And it also helps to prevent the egg from cracking during cooking. This happens if you take an egg directly out of the frig and boil it. The internal temperature of the egg is colder than the external water temperature, so the egg shell cracks before the egg is cooked, resulting in shreds in the water or a foam.

And some people think that the hole in the shell will aid in cracking/peeling the cooked egg.

Great what you can learn from cookbooks and cooking shows isn't it?

Awesome, thanks for the explanation. I love the sciency part of cooking.

What my mom and grandma do for the eggs not to crack is add salt to the water. I don't think I ever ate boiled eggs cooked differently, so I have no idea if this makes a difference in taste. I have to try the piercing method next time I boil eggs.

I was at a conference in the US this winter and since the breakfast was usually canned fruits, pastry, etc. and I didn't have a kitchen, I once had boiled eggs from 7 Eleven. I'm not sure if the 7 Eleven boiled eggs are the typical boiled eggs one finds in store (I never saw boiled eggs in German supermarkets), but the ones I had were yucky! Hence I only had them once...

[Georgiana]

Re: For those who like hard boiled eggs, but not cooking/shelling them....

In the 17 minutes, I'm waiting for the eggs to finish cooking, I can toss a load of laundry into the machine or wash some dishes or take a quick shower. In the time I'm waiting for the eggs to cool in the cold/ice water or frig, I can pay my bills or mow the lawn or answer some threads on ADBB.

Good point. I should remember to never do things the other way around, i.e. answer some threads on ADBB while the eggs are cooking. I'd probably trigger the fire alarm more often than not. LOL

[not2late]

Re: For those who like hard boiled eggs, but not cooking/shelling them....

I've read the salt thing in other cookbooks too.

I've seen the 7-eleven eggs, but never tried them.