Perfectly hard-boiled eggs via steaming method on induction cooktops

https://noben.org/blog/posts/perfect-hard-boiled-eggs-via-steaming/

by keyle • 4 years ago

24 57 4 years ago

patmcc• 4 years ago

I don't understand - why would the type of cooktop make a difference to boiling an egg? The boiling water will be at 100° whether it's heated by induction, coil top, gas, etc.

londons_explore• 4 years ago

Many induction cookers are kinda low power (to save on money).

If you have a nice pot of boiling water at 100°, and you add a bunch of cold eggs, the water temperature dips down to 70° and takes a really long time to climb back up.

Since the dip depends on the power of the cooker and the number of eggs added, it makes a universal rule about how many minutes to cook an egg to perfection hard.

astura5• 4 years ago

So bring the eggs up to temperature with the water? That's what I've been doing my entire life. It seems kinda dangerous to try to add eggs to boiling water in the first place, splash risk. At least it's a completely unnecessary danger.

ars3• 4 years ago

Isn't that why it's steam? You keep the cold eggs above the steam, so that never changes temperature.

ajross2• 4 years ago

If you have a nice pot of boiling water at 100°, and you add a bunch of cold eggs

You're also likely to crack those eggs from the thermal stress. Standard American Frontier Cooking Tradition demands that cold eggs go in cold water and come to a temperature along with the water. Turn heat down to a simmer just as it reaches boiling. Five minutes for a standard soft boil, ten for hard boiled. Then place under running cold water to cool for 5 minutes before peeling (which you should do immediately, don't let the egg sit in its shell, it is much easier and cleaner to get it out now).

Works every time. Even on induction ranges, which I've been using for 11 years now. Frankly I don't know what the author of the linked article is complaining about.

senectus13• 4 years ago

in my experience they get there faster and are easier to get to a set temp and stay stable at that temp. We have both and the gas one is a lot more variable.

newobj• 4 years ago

Instant pot for 3 minutes. Done

bluGill• 4 years ago

Instant pot is an induction cooker, though calling it a cooktop is a bit of a stretch

bayesianbot• 4 years ago

I've tried a lot of things with eggs, but one time I threw them in my Air fryer - 150°C for 15 minutes and then in cold water. It's so easy method, they almost never break and I get so consistent results I have not tried anything else after. Air fryers, eggs and cook level preferences are of course not the same for everyone so you might have to try around little bit, but IIRC I got the perfect result on second try.

senectus13• 4 years ago

so tempted to buy an airfryer

m-p-3• 4 years ago

I use mine several times a week along with my pressure cooker, it's great.

voisin3• 4 years ago

We use our air fryer literally every day. We only use the oven for large things, which is rare. And they are cheap! Best money you’ll spend in the kitchen.

jjeaff• 4 years ago

Many home ovens and some toaster ovens have a convection option. You might check first if yours has that option. "air fryer" is just a new branding of an old cooking method (convection oven).

silisili• 4 years ago

Same! I do 275F for 12 mins. I figured out you could generally increase the temp to lower the time, and vice versa, which seems obvious...but I thought it was a joke at first and would explode, so I treaded carefully. And just adjust a minute or two each way for soft, medium, hard, etc. So I imagine yours are on the hard side.

Was amazed how fast and well done they came out.

astura5• 4 years ago

easy-to-peal

I see people struggling to peel eggs a lot, however, from what I've seen it's always the technique that's non-optimal, not the cook on the eggs. What I mean is that ANY hard/soft-boiled egg will peel quickly and easily with the right technique.

I ate hard boiled eggs a lot as a child (it's cheap protein) and I was always taught to peel them with a spoon.[1]

[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=TmWPxDHSNWk - this video is 34 seconds long and doesn't require sound.

timbit422• 4 years ago

That's more work than what I do. I cut the egg in half with a knife and use a spoon to scoop out each half. Works better than you might expect.

ars3• 4 years ago

The recipe doesn't indicate if you should use cold eggs or room temperature eggs.

mrcartmeneses• 4 years ago

Nor does it fully define “perfect” hard boiled eggs

Edit: I just realised being posted to HN is worse than getting your homework graded by 100 mean spirited teachers

bee_rider2• 4 years ago

The inductive cooking is incorrect! (you forgot the base case).

jasonwatkinspdx3• 4 years ago

Doesn't end up mattering. 38F vs 70F is a small gap vs 210F.

Same rule applies with steak, and yes, I know you can find a bazillion clips of Gordon Ramsey et all saying it's super necessary. Ignore them. Listen to the people who actually tested it with measurements. You can leak a steak on the counter for 2 hours and it'll not have drifted up in temp enough to matter.

A charitable read of the chef folklore is that setting it out, salting it, then letting it supposedly temper actually just allows time for the salt to absorb in, which does make a very clear difference.

kadoban3• 4 years ago

Yeah, the time the salt sits on in the most important factor by far, but an hour or two isn't enough. I go for 24 hours in the fridge, set on their side on a drying rack so no liquid pools. This is for thicker steaks, though I think I'd try something very similar for thinner ones.

I do tend to warm the steaks up on the counter as well, but it barely seems to matter, unsurprisingly.

ars3• 4 years ago

For eggs it does matter - just 30 seconds extra cooking changes the texture of the yolk. It's actually hard to get the perfect yolk, you need very exact timing, most people seriously overcook eggs because they'd rather that than raw.

The yolk is supposed to be set, but just barely, and not dry. This is especially true for egg salad where the softer white and creamer yolk dramatically improve the flavor.

If you Google you'll find plenty of photos of yolks at various stages of cooking so you can see what I mean.

keyle• 4 years ago

Author here... Good point. They're straight from the fridge.

invalidname• 4 years ago

This is similar to the Thermomix approach (which also uses induction) but has a basket, etc. There we take 14 minutes and 400 grams of water (it weighs the water). It's an incredible machine.

happyopossum• 4 years ago

No such thing as a perfect hard boiled egg - by definition you’ve already ruined it

voisin3• 4 years ago

Please elaborate.

bee_rider2• 4 years ago

They are saying they don't like their eggs hardboiled, in a comically definitive manner.

astura5• 4 years ago

happyopossum wants you to know that they don't like hard-boiled eggs.

wnolens• 4 years ago

Haha.. hard agree. But same principles apply to soft boiled, which I love.

It's all too much effort though. Cook time, ice bath, and I cannot stand peeling.. just crack and cook it on a nonstick. I can be eating bacon eggs and toast before your water has boiled.

yakshaving_jgt2• 4 years ago

I just stick my eggs directly into the kettle.

- Four large eggs in the kettle

- Add cold water so they're fully covered

- Switch on kettle

- Once boiled, set a timer for six minutes

- After those six minutes, empty water, and fill kettle with cold water again to cool the eggs

You now have four soft-boiled eggs.

unraveller• 4 years ago

You can set the timer at the start, if you are on 240volt in summer it takes 7m35s total to reach a boil and passively cook 4 large soft eggs. In winter it's around 8 minutes.

before adding cold water for cooling, I also violently shake up the eggs in the flat bottomed kettle. You can use a fork to pierce them too, the idea is to crack the shells so a little cold water can seep in and make for easier peeling.

timbit422• 4 years ago

When do you switch off the kettle? Once boiled, or after the fix minutes?

yakshaving_jgt2• 4 years ago

The kettle switches itself off automatically once the water is near boiling point. At that point I start the timer, and leave the eggs where they are. When the timer stops, I replace the hot water inside the kettle with cold water for a minute or so, then drain, peel, and eat.

javiramos• 4 years ago

I like Kenji's approach to making hard-boiled eggs: https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boil...

dcormier• 4 years ago

His steaming method has been my go-to for years.

https://www.seriouseats.com/steamed-hard-boiled-eggs-recipe

chizhik-pyzhik• 4 years ago

Sounds like the trick is just... put them in already-boiling water. Putting them in cold water, then bringing it to a boil, is what causes them to stick to the shell.

polishdude20• 4 years ago

Yep I use this trick all the time: - Put them in already boiling water. - boil for 7 mins - then take them out and keep them under a running tap of cold water. You want the water running so it gets maximum heat transfer.

I think it might be to do with how the shell and membrane have difference expansion coefficients. Or the membrane and the egg white. Not sure.

Wistar• 4 years ago

A few years ago, I began to steam hard-boiled eggs. 3–4 cups of water in a 3qt saucepan with a steamer basket and a lid. Bring the water to a hard boil with the lid on, remove the lid, lower temp to just a gently rolling boil, lower in the steamer basket with 6–7 eggs, re-lid and cook for 13 mins. Pull the basket and eggs and place in the prep sink filled with iced water. Let cool for 15 mins. Perfectly hard-boiled eggs that are remarkably easy to peel, often comes off in one or two pieces.

Shorter steaming times produce ever softer-boiled eggs but all remain easy to peel.

One thing I have noticed is that different eggs from different suppliers require different steam times to yield the same results. Some 30 secs to 1 minute shorter, and some can take 2–3 mins longer. But, when they come from my usual supplier (Kroger/QFC AA large) they take exactly 13 mins for a fully, but juuust set yolk.

zhynn• 4 years ago

The consistent temperature of steam is the key, I think. The rest is the mass and density of the eggs... but the easy-peeling of the steam is the reason I keep coming back to it.

sanroot99• 4 years ago

Just use pressure cooker

cush• 4 years ago

Fun fact - Steamers are used in professional kitchens when needing to soft boil 100s of eggs, because you can simply place the entire crate (box and all) of eggs into the steamer. The eggs never crack and can all be removed at the same time, so the results are very consistent

Overtonwindow• 4 years ago

We got a housewarming gift that is an egg cooker. You put eggs in it, pour about 3 ounces of water, push the button, in about five minutes later you have perfectly hard-boiled eggs. Extremely simple.

newusertoday• 4 years ago

i must be doing something wrong. I just put eggs in pressure cooker and set induction timer to 10 mins thats it. I have been doing this for years and i don't find any problem with eggs what am i missing?

jrootabega• 4 years ago

Hmm, that 15-16 minute time seems unappetizing to me, but I haven't preferred fully cooked flaky/chalky yolks for a long time. For creamy (aka jammy) yolks, I have settled on:

- 9:30-10:?? cook time depending on size

- eggs straight from fridge (not necessary; just how I do it)

- Move the steamer basket to cold running water immediately. I think colder water will help make peeling easier, but faucet temperature water is usually fine, too.

With a gas stove, the hard part is getting the water back to the right boil after adding the basket. I know that the temperature of the water won't change, but I still feel that higher heat will cook the eggs faster since more steam will be passing over them.

compsciphd• 4 years ago

the best hard boiled eggs I've made are with the measure water to steam heat them (and have device auto turn off when water runs out). they come out hard but creamy in a way i've never gotten from dunking them in water. unitasker device, but works oh so well for what it does.

Perfectly hard-boiled eggs via steaming method on induction cooktops

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