How To Boil An Egg

I've never actually mastered boiling eggs.  Sounds simple enough, doesn't it.  But the perfect hard boiled egg is an illusive thing.

The truth is that, up until a couple of years ago, I didn't even like hard boiled eggs.  I didn't mind hard boiled eggs in things, but as a stand alone food... well, not so much.  I liked the whites just fine.  It was all about the yolk.  I didn't like the yolk.  Needless to say, my yolk avoidance was a little limiting.

Added to the somewhat gluey texture of the yolk, the color bothered me.  The yolks always looked gray and muddy to me.  Who wants to eat gray food anyway?  Where were those lovely vibrant yellow yolks that I saw in cookbooks and cooking magazines?

Well, the answer was simple.  The vibrant yellow yolks were there all along, but they had to be coaxed into full bloom in the cooking process.  Yes, it mattered how the egg was boiled.  Who knew?

Hard as it was for me to believe that there was an actually best way to cook an egg, and that those yellow yolks weren't just the work of a food stylist, I decided to investigate.  And do you know what I found out?  I found out that the best way to boil an egg involves very little boiling and a lot more waiting.

Yup... You boil and then you wait.

The best way to boil an egg is to cover the eggs in cold water and then bring the pot to a boil.  Turn off the heat and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 15 minutes.

It turns out that I'm still not a lover of the yolk, but they look so much prettier as I transfer mine over to Ted's plate.