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You are here: Home / Holiday Recipe Box / How To Hard Boil Eggs

How To Hard Boil Eggs

By Marybeth Feutz 10 Comments

Making the perfect hard-boiled egg really isn’t that difficult! All it takes is the right size pot, some hot water, and a little bit of patience. Get some easy tips, and you can do them perfectly, too!

sliced hard boiled eggs on a pig-shaped cutting board

How To Hard Boil Eggs

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I always have to look at the inside of the egg carton to remember how to hard boil eggs. Seriously. Every time. Hopefully, now that I’ve actually made a video to help you out, I will remember the next time! Even if you know how to hard boil eggs, you’ll want to watch this awkward video… I think this one will need to be on my reshoot list sometime soon!

Getting the perfect hard boiled egg is actually pretty simple. Just follow these 7 steps:

  1. Gently place your eggs in the bottom of an empty saucepan. Use a pan that is big enough so all your eggs fit in a single layer. If you need to double-layer your eggs, use a larger pot or cook your eggs in two batches.
  2. Fill the saucepan with cold water until the eggs are covered by about one inch.
  3. Put a cover on your pot. Heat it over medium-high heat, just until the water starts to boil.
  4. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat, move the pan off the burner, and set your timer for 12 minutes.
  5. Wait patiently.
  6. When the timer goes off, use a slotted spoon to gently move the eggs from the hot water into a bowl of iced water. Let the eggs cool for a few minutes.
  7. Peel, eat, and enjoy!

See, that wasn’t all that hard!

Tips For Hard Boiling Eggs

Using eggs that are slightly older will give you hard boiled eggs that are much easier to peel. You should purchase your fresh eggs early enough so that you can stash them in your refrigerator for at least 1-2 weeks before you hard boil them. My eggs were 3 weeks after their pack date, and they peeled beautifully! You can tell how old your eggs are by looking at the codes on the carton, or by doing a float test.

Do your hard boiled eggs sometimes get a green ring around the yolk? This isn’t dangerous and doesn’t affect the taste of the eggs, but it can make them look not-so-pretty. That green ring is a result of a reaction that happens between the sulfur in the egg white and the iron in the egg yolk. It happens when the egg is cooked for too long, or if the egg is cooked too hot. Using the method above (starting with cold water, bringing just to a boil, and cooking for 12 minutes) should give you a non-green egg yolk!

If you’re using large eggs, they will need to cook for 12 minutes to get a perfectly hard-boiled egg. Different size eggs need a little different cooking time after the water starts to boil.

  • Medium eggs – 9 minutes
  • Large eggs – 12 minutes
  • Extra large eggs – 15 minutes

Peeling Tips for Hard-Boiled Eggs

Using eggs that are slightly older will make them much easier to peel. The best time to hard boil eggs is about 1-2 weeks after you purchased them, or about 3 weeks after their pack date (see “Tips For Hard Boiling Eggs” above).

If you plan to use the eggs that day, the best time to peel them is after the eggs have cooled down in their ice bath for a few minutes. As the eggs cool, the egg white shrinks away from the inside of the shell just a little bit, making them super-easy to peel.

Start with the wide end of the egg. Give the egg a gentle tap on a plate, cutting board, or counter; then roll the egg around to finely crack most of the shell. The shell should easily peel away from the egg.

If you have trouble getting the shell off the egg (it happens to the best of us sometimes), turn on your faucet and peel the egg under cool running water. The water will make it easier to separate the shell from the egg.

sliced hard boiled eggs on a blue plate

More Egg Information

You should also think about getting this egg slicer. It makes egg salad a snap! (Check out my other favorite kitchen gadgets.)

How to Hard Boil Eggs from My Fearless Kitchen. Making the perfect hard boiled egg really isn't that difficult! All it takes is the right size pot, some hot water, and a little bit of patience. Get some easy tips, and you can do them perfectly, too!

Do you prefer brown eggs or white eggs? White eggs are certainly easier to dye and decorate for Easter, but that’s about the only difference!

a bowl of brown, white, and green eggs

Enjoy!

4 Ways to Take the Fear Out of Your Kitchen

  • How Do I Store Eggs?
  • How to Test Eggs for Freshness
  • How to Clean Up a Broken Egg
  • What Does the Code on My Egg Carton Mean?

3 Recipes to Try

  • Easy Egg Salad
  • Ham, Egg, & Cheesewich Breakfast Sandwich
  • Slow Cooker Breakfast Casserole

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Filed Under: Holiday Recipe Box, Kitchen Tips, Tricks, & More Tagged With: egg, food, hard boil, hard boil eggs, hard boiled, hard boiled eggs, how to

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Comments

  1. Susanne Z says

    03/13/2015 at 2:30 pm

    Love the redesign! Looks great. My only suggestion – there’s no “home” button and no way to search for topics. I was trying to find a “home” page to make this comment but couldn’t.

    I share your blog all the time because I enjoy your concise writing style and the fact that you’re a veterinarian and a mom and a city-girl-turned-farmer. I trust your work! Nice job.

  2. Marybeth says

    03/13/2015 at 4:08 pm

    Susanne, Thanks so much for your comment! You can go “home” by clicking the logo in the header, but you’re right, that might not be the first place people look. You can search for specific topics in the sidebar, just type in the “looking for something” box. I’ll see about getting a “home” button added! Thanks again, for your comment and for your support!

  3. Angelica says

    05/06/2018 at 3:47 pm

    Do you have a deviled egg recipe to go along with all your other awesome recipes?? 🙂

  4. Marybeth Feutz says

    05/22/2018 at 9:15 pm

    I don’t (yet!), but my friend at The Farmwife Feeds does! Check out her recipe for Deviled Eggs with a Kick here – https://www.farmwifefeeds.com/deviled-eggs-with-a-kick/

  5. Angelica says

    05/23/2018 at 9:16 am

    Thanks so much! I’ll go check it out!

Trackbacks

  1. What's the Difference Between Brown and White Eggs? - My Fearless Kitchen says:
    12/27/2017 at 8:38 pm

    […] How to Hard Boil Eggs […]

  2. How Do I Store Eggs? - My Fearless Kitchen says:
    02/06/2018 at 4:06 pm

    […] Eggs should be stored with the large side up (pointed side down). There is a small air sac in the large end of the egg. Storing eggs with the air sac (large end) up, helps to keep them from drying out. (Yep, those pores let moisture out of the egg, too!) This will also help to keep the yolk centered in the egg. That’s not such a big deal if you’re just going to scramble them, but it does make prettier hard-boiled eggs. […]

  3. Easy Egg Salad - My Fearless Kitchen says:
    03/14/2018 at 10:46 am

    […] with 6 hard-boiled eggs, and slice them up. Seriously, this is the hardest part. But getting the perfect hard-boiled egg […]

  4. What Does the Code on My Egg Carton Mean? - My Fearless Kitchen says:
    03/26/2018 at 9:23 pm

    […] The next time you’re in the grocery store, you’ll be able to pick the freshest eggs. Unless you want to hard boil them. Then you should look for eggs that are a little older. (Find out why here.) […]

  5. Low-Carb Thanksgiving Recipes - Beyer Beware says:
    11/13/2018 at 10:11 pm

    […] Along with some how to boil egg tips […]

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