Eggs

As our period of quarantine continues, the need to fill time with something other than sleep and TV, elevates activities that I previously might have considered trivial and mundane to be profound and extraordinary. Today I look at boiling eggs.

I decided I wanted to know exactly how to make hard boiled eggs to the consistency I like; with a yoke that is just slightly moist, but not liquid and not dry. Of course there are lots of references on the internet, but finding the exact consistency requires some trial and error.

The process to find the right consistency started by removing as many variables as I could. First, I started by selecting a pot that I would use for each experiment, filled with cold water and two eggs, which was then brought up to a boil.   I eventually settled on a precise amount of water (1 litre) as any variability changed the time taken to bring the water to a boil, which in turn, affected the duration of boiling time. Once up to heat, I set the timer and lowered the flame slightly to maintain a slow boil.  After several trials, I determined 6 minutes was the right amount of time to boil the eggs. When done I drained the boiling water from the pot and refilled it with cold water to stop the cooking process. After about a minute, I removed the eggs from the water and served them.

There are some variables I ignored. First was air pressure, as I didn’t think it would materially change the boiling point and thus the duration. The second was the temperature of the cold water. This could be impactful, but I will confirm this as we move into summer when the tap water tends to warm up.