Boiled eggs may be delicious, but they can also be difficult to truly perfect. Whether you want soft-boiled or hard-boiled, it’s easy to mistime your boiling time and end up with the wrong type. And if you aren’t having them alongside some dipping toast, they can also sometimes be rather hard to peel.
Foodie influencer Jeanette Donnarumma, who posts on Instagram as @jeanettemadeit, has shared her method for ensuring that she gets perfect boiled eggs every time. Her method was originally shared by US TV chef Rachael Ray, and Jeanette adds that it was a friend and former colleague who first showed her how to get her eggs perfect. Since learning this, she says that she’s “never looked back” and now uses this method every time she wants boiled eggs.
Jeanette says: “The secret is to start your eggs in boiling water. Add your eggs to the boiling water using a spoon. Bring them back to a boil.
“Set your timer for five to six minutes for jammy eggs, ten minutes for fully hard boiled through.”
After the eggs have finished boiling, it’s time to drain the hot water off the eggs, and cool them down as fast as possible.
For this, Jeanette advises pouring cold tap water onto the eggs and filling the pan with ice.
She said: “We are going to get a lot of ice. We need to shock these eggs.”
After the water and ice have been added, give the mixture a stir, ensuring that there are no hot spots left in the pan. Then wait until the ice has completely melted before pouring the water out.
This should take around ten minutes, depending on how much ice you have used.
After this it’s time to peel the eggs, which should happen pretty easily if you have followed these steps so far.
Jeanette said: “Now the magic happens, we’re going to crack the egg shell all the way around on the side of the sink or on the pot and look at how easily that eggshell lifts right off that egg.
“There’s no sticking, there’s no dents in the egg. Follow this technique every time and you get perfectly peeled hard-boiled eggs.”
