how to boil an egg

Julia Child’s cookbook, “the Way to Cook” is like an encyclopedia, heavy with 491 pages.
One of its 11 sections is about Eggs. Who knew there was so much to say about eggs?
For the past week, I have been patiently following Child’s instructions on how to hard-boil an egg. It really works, especially if you need to have a good-looking egg that is easy to peel, for putting in salads or making stuffed eggs. To be honest, though, for every-day purposes, the process is too long and energy consuming. Therefore, I cheat a bit. Here’s a summary of Child’s process, followed by my modified version.

To hard-Boil and Peel Eggs.

1. Prick the large end of an egg with a needle, so that the air bubble inside the egg does not expand and crack the egg in boiling water.
2. Put the egg or eggs in a pot and pour water to cover the eggs by 1 inch.
3. Set pot over high heat and bring to a boil.
Remove the pot from heat and let it sit for exactly 17 minutes.
4. Transfer the egg to a bowl filled with ice water and chill for exactly 2 minutes.
The chilling shrinks the body of the egg and separates it from the shell.
5. Put the eggs back into a pot of boiling water for ten seconds. The shell will expand in this process.
Return the eggs back to ice water and crack the shells gently.
6. Peel the egg gently by cracking it all over against a hard surface. Start peeling from the large end under streaming water. Return the peeled egg back to icy water to continue chilling it.
* The eggs will keep well in the refrigerator, in an uncovered container of water.
* Chilling the eggs promptly after the 10 minute boil keeps dark lines from forming around the egg.

A simplified version: Hard-boiled Eggs

1. before starting, prick a hole in the large end.
2. put egg in water and bring to a boil.
3. let the egg rest for 17 minutes.
4. chill the egg in cold water. if the water warms up, replace with more cold water from the tap.
5. wait for a few minutes and peel by cracking the shell all over.

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