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Picture of Hard Boiled Egg

How to Make Hard Boil Eggs (Recipes Kids Should Know Before Leaving Home)

By Jane Maynard

Knowing how to hard boil an egg is a must-have skill in the kitchen. Not only are hard boiled eggs a great snack or quick meal on the go, but you will find hard boiled eggs included in many recipes, too! That’s why this is the next in our series on Meals Kids Should Know How to Cook Before Leaving Home. Today we’re going to teach you how to hard boil an egg in the most foolproof way possible (no magic necessary!) as well a trick that makes peeling the eggs easier.

How to Cook a Hard Boil an Egg (Recipes Kids Should Know How to Make Before Leaving Home)

There are a lot of tips and tricks out there for hard boiling eggs so you don’t end up with rubbery whites and green yolks. You can even buy gadgets to help you out. You definitely don’t need any gadgets and these instructions below will work every time. So don’t worry about looking up tips, tricks or spending money. This recipe is all you need.

How to Cook a Hard Boil an Egg: Cover eggs with 1 inch of cold water when hard boiling (Recipes Kids Should Know How to Make Before Leaving Home)

You can hard boil as many eggs as you want at one time, just make sure that the eggs can rest in the pot in a single layer – so, no eggs on top of each other! Also, you want to make sure the pot is deep enough so that when you add water, there is about 1 inch of water above the tops of the eggs.

How to Cook a Hard Boiled Egg: Use an ice water bath after cooking hard boiled eggs to make peeling easier (Recipes Kids Should Know How to Make Before Leaving Home)

Trick for Easy Peeling of Hard Boiled Eggs

Peeling hard boiled eggs is always kind of annoying, but one step of the recipe below should help make it easier. After the eggs are cooked, immediately place them in an ice water bath (if you look hard you can see the eggs under the ice in the photo above!). This helps the eggs to cool quickly, preventing the hot proteins in the egg white from developing a bond with the shell. In addition it causes the egg white to shrink a bit, further assisting with your peeling process.

And don’t forget to crack the egg shell all around the egg before peeling. This helps tremendously! (see below)

Trick for Easy Peeling of Hard Boiled Eggs: Cracking the shell on a hard boiled egg

Now that we’ve gone over the logic behind today’s recipe, let’s get to the recipe itself.

How to Hard Boil an Egg Perfectly Every Time

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How to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs

This recipe can be adapted for as many eggs as you want to cook. Just make sure the eggs can rest in the pot in a single layer and also be covered with about 1 inch of water over the tops of the eggs.

Adding the eggs to an ice bath after cooking makes peeling the eggs easier.

  • Author: Jane Maynard
  • Prep Time: 5
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 20

Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 Eggs

Instructions

  1. Place eggs in the bottom of a medium-sized saucepan.
  2. Add COLD water to the pot, enough so there is 1 inch of water over the top of the eggs. Make sure eggs can be in one layer in the pot.
  3. Put pot on stove and turn burner onto the highest setting. Bring water to a boil.
  4. Once water is boiling, turn off the stove, remove the pot from the burner and put a lid on the pot. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
  5. While the eggs are sitting in the covered pot, add a few handfuls of ice to a medium or large bowl and then fill the bowl with water, leaving a few inches of space at the top of the bowl.
  6. When timer goes off, using a large slotted spoon, carefully lift eggs one at a time out of the pot and place in the ice water. Set a timer for 5 minutes. When 5 minutes are up, remove eggs from the bowl.
  7. To peel the hard boiled egg, roll the egg firmly on the counter to crack the entire surface. You can also gently tap the egg on the counter to crack the egg all over. Start peeling the egg from the fat end of the egg, where there is an air pocket inside the shell making it easier to start the peeling process. Peel the egg over the kitchen sink under running, cool water. Discard shells in the garbage (not down the drain!).
  8. Store hard boiled eggs in fridge.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 6

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About the Author

Jane Maynard

Jane Maynard is a mom, wife, graphic designer and blogger living in the San Diego area in sunny Southern California. Jane started her food blog This Week for Dinner 9 years ago and has be...

Jane Maynard is a mom, wife, graphic designer and blogger living in the San Diego area in sunny Southern California. Jane started her food blog This Week for Dinner 9 years ago and has been posting weekly meal plans ever since, in addition to recipes, travel, kitchen tips and more. Jane writes for the food sections of several websites and is always busy cooking up something new! Jane is pretty much obsessed with chocolate chip cookies and does not want to fix that about herself.

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