We all have our preference when it comes to how we prepare our eggs, but boiling them is one of the more foolproof methods. Simply placing them in boiling water and leaving them to cook for a few minutes leaves little room for error, but there are still a few ways you can go wrong.
While a runny yolk is ideal if you’re making boiled eggs to go with some buttery toast, hard boiled eggs are more common in savoury dishes, especially salads and sandwiches. Leave it in for too long, and it risks being dry and rubbery, but if you don’t leave it in for long enough, your yolk will be a gloopy mess. Striking the perfect balance takes a little more practice, and Mary Berry has shared her secret method for getting a perfectly jammy boiled egg.
Huffpost reported that the chef and former Great British Bake Off judge revealed how to get the perfect jammy eggs in a recipe from Mary Berry’s Highland Christmas.
Served with kedgeree, a dish consisting of flaky haddock, rice and hard-boiled eggs, Mary prepares jammy eggs for the recipe, and instructs readers to cook the eggs for about six minutes in order to achieve a jammy yolk.
While this is the same amount of time you should cook a boiled egg if you want to achieve a soft and runny yolk, it’s what Mary does afterwards that ensures the yolk is perfectly jammy.
Once the eggs have been cooking for six minutes, you should remove them and immediately run them under cold water. Not only does this stop them from cooking, meaning your yolk won’t be overdone, it also makes them easier to peel.
Once they’ve cooled down enough to handle, you can go ahead and peel the shell off and cut them into quarters, without any worry that the yolk will spill out and go everwhere.
Mary also does things slightly differently to begin with; instead of adding the eggs to a pan of water and bringing it to a boil before setting a timer, she instead brings the water to a boil first and then gently lowers the eggs in.
The Minimalist Baker also shared their method for jammy eggs, describing it as “somewhere between a hard boiled egg and a soft boiled egg”.
Instead of running eggs under cold water after cooking, they advised plunging the eggs into a bowl of ice and water for three minutes before peeling them.
While both methods will work if you’re looking to make jammy eggs, Mary Berry’s recipe won’t leave you having to wash up extra bowls after treating your eggs to an icy plunge.
