Perfectly hard-boiled eggs via steaming method on induction cooktops | Hacker News Reader

Perfectly hard-boiled eggs via steaming method on induction cooktops

noben.org

24 pointskeyle57 comments

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.

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.

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.

That tends to make the shell sticking much worse. Kenji has a huge article he did for the NYT where he tested all this stuff at scale with like 150 people cooking eggs.

You don't need the water going at a violent roll or anything, just when you see big bubbles going bottom to top is fine. You lower the eggs in with a spoon. There's no danger.

I take it this is the article? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/dining/how-to-hard-boil-e...

I'm not impressed by the "study's" conclusion; I mentioned in another comment, if you use the right technique, any egg will peel easily - https://youtube.com/watch?v=TmWPxDHSNWk

I think the issue is that induction boils water so much quicker than other methods that if you start with eggs in cold water and bring to a boil (a common method), the water boils so quickly on induction that the eggs don’t warm up quite as much before the water reaches a boil.

The difference in boiling time with induction is shocking.

Makes sense, thanks.

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

> 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.

I perforate the bottom of the egg with the needle of a small safety pin to prevent my eggs from cracking. Works like a charm.

I'd also like to add that how easy an egg is to peel has nothing to do with how you cook it. Truly fresh eggs will not peel wonderfully. If you have some week old Kroger eggs, more than likely those things are several weeks old which changes the chemical composition of the egg. The shell/skin becomes more alkaline which somehow causes them to release from the white more easily.

If you have fresh eggs, boil them with some baking soda in the water.

For hard boiled just put cold eggs in cold water and boil them. When it boils, shut off the heat. When you can stick you hand in the water and pull them out they're done.

That kind of recipe is great, except different types of stoves and different amounts of water get to boiling in _vastly_ different amounts of time, and it affects the doneness of the eggs.

Recipes are better when they can actually be followed and get consistent results.

And that is why hackers tend to make poor cooks.

Look, you can reject Received Wisdom and do your own thing in the interests of rigor, or you can cook the way your grandmother did. We all know which produces better food.

Of course stoves are different. But trying to normalize things as an a priori goal (in this case by dropping cold eggs into boiling water!) only makes things worse. Traditional recipes are traditional precisely because they're tolerant of situational slop and occasional misinterpretation.

> Look, you can reject Received Wisdom and do your own thing in the interests of rigor, or you can cook the way your grandmother did. We all know which produces better food.

Hypothetical grandmother cooks well because she perfected the technique over a few decades.

That's great and all, but recipes are communication, and if they can't communicate _how_ to achieve grandmother results to a new person, then what in the hell is the point?

It'd be better off if the recipe just said "figure it out" then, instead of trying to imply certainty where none can exist due to stove differences.

> Of course stoves are different. But trying to normalize things as an a priori goal (in this case by dropping cold eggs into boiling water!) only makes things worse. Traditional recipes are traditional precisely because they're tolerant of situational slop and occasional misinterpretation.

Except this supposed recipe isn't tolerant of anything. Eggs are still over or under done based on a minute here or there, and which way is a guessing game without the context of which exact stove.

If that were the best possible, then fine, but there's other recipes that are actually repeatable in this comment page, so what's the benefit of the grandmother recipe again?

I’ve switched from starting everything cold to waiting until the water is boiling before adding the eggs, and the peelability is night and day. It’s far, far easier to peel them when the water is already boiling before adding the eggs.

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.

>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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

so tempted to buy an airfryer

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

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.

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).

hah definitely not Our Oven is from 1983... I know because we bought the house to renovate and haven't done the kitchen yet :-D

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.

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

Please elaborate.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Instant pot for 3 minutes. Done

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I am very familiar with this topic. I again recommend the exhaustive article by Kenji in the NYT. You don't need to wait.

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

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?

Just use pressure cooker

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.

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