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

[not2late]

My penny-pinching soul can't pay $3. 29 for 10 eggs when I can buy 12 eggs for 99 cents. Boiling and peeling them myself is worth the $2. 30 difference, lol. (Yes, I clip and use coupons on sale items too!)

I hard boil eggs using Julia Child's method: Using a thumb tack, pierce a hole in the broad end of the egg.. Put them into a pot, cover them with cool water. Bring to a rolling boil. Remove the pot from the heat. Cover with a lid and set aside for 17 minutes. Then I use Jacques Pepin method for cracking the eggs: at the end of 17 minutes, drain the pot of the hot water. Under running cold water, shake the pan so that the egg shells crackle. Then the eggs in cold water, refrigerate or add ice cubes. The cold shrinks the egg from the shell. Allow them to sit in the cold water. Then peel. According to Jacques Pepin, shaking the eggs to crack them will help them to release the sulfur compounds that give hard boiled eggs that greenish-grey color around the yolks and it will also prevent that "hard boiled egg" smell of the eggs.

[Georgiana]

What is the purpose of piercing the shell?

[not2late]

Originally Posted by Georgiana

What is the purpose of piercing the shell?

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?

[JohnSantos]

Originally Posted by not2late

I hard boil eggs using Julia Child's method

I'd rather poke myself in the head with a stick than do all this. I'll hit the store today for the pre-boiled.

[not2late]

It's not very time consuming. In the time it would take for me to get my car keys, get into my car, drive to the supermarket, find parking, walk to the egg aisle, stand in line, pay my purchases, drive back home, the eggs would already be pierced, cooked, cooled and peeled.

Slightly off topic, but I read a recipe on line for sauerbratten in which you let the meat marinate in the frig for like 1-2 days. Someone wrote that it was too time consuming to do that and that they don't have that kind of time to devote to one recipe. Another person replied that it wasn't like you had to sit by the frig for 2 days and nights watching the thing marinate. That's how I view most cooking endeavors. 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.

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by not2late

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]

Originally Posted by not2late

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]

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

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