The Perfect Egg

The Perfect Egg

I've been trying to cook the perfect egg for a while now, but (excuse the pun) I think I've finally cracked it :)

I hate overcooked eggs, I like my sunny side up yolk to be runny, my soft boiled egg to eat with toast fingers to be very runny (yolk only) and my medium boiled eggs (as in the photograph) to be cooked but still soft. 

So, many eggs later here are my findings:

To cook a perfect runny egg, using a medium heavy based saucepan with a lid,  take the egg (1 or up to 6) from the fridge and place it carefully into 3/4" of fast boiling water, (so you're basically steaming it) put the lid on the pan, and set the timer to 5 minutes. At exactly 5 minutes remove from the pan and drop into cold water for 10 seconds (to stop the cooking) before placing the egg in an egg cup,  serve with the top cut off with toast fingers.

For the perfect medium boiled egg (as in the photo) place the eggs (up to 6 at a time) into 3/4" fast boiling water, put the lid on the pan, and set the timer for 7 minutes, remove the egg (or eggs) from the pan, and as before drop into ice cold water for 10 seconds before peeling the shells off.

For a Hard Boiled Egg, as used in Deviled eggs.  Follow the method exactly as described above, but steam the eggs for 10 minutes

I found that this method of steaming the eggs makes them not only perfectly cooked, but very easy to peel.  One of the problems with trying to cook perfect eggs if you're cooking more than one, is that if you have a pan full of boiling water, the water temperature drops significantly when you add the eggs, this interferes with the cooking time, by steaming the eggs in only 3/4" water the temperature changes very little, and not enough to interfere with the timing of the cooking.

Enjoy:)