I consider myself a fair proficient cook but for years I can’t figure out the damn soft boiled egg. I follow the instructions to a T (boil water, turn it off drop eggs in for 7 minutes), and yet when it comes to peeling the eggs (under a thin stream of water) they just fall apart.
I do deviate away from the recipe a bit by dropping them in cold water after their boil so I don’t burn my fingers while peeling. Could this be where I’m going wrong??
by nineinchmale17
36 Comments
It could be the freshness of the eggs. I’ve had that happen with older ones.
There’s a billion and one thoughts about eggs with a “sticky membrane” let’s call it.
I’ve had a couple eggs in the same batch that do stick and others that don’t. So perhaps freshness has something to do with it and I had a batch of mixed age eggs.
In any event, you’re not doing anything procedurally incorrect. 7 minutes at a rolling boil is exactly what I do. Perhaps try with different brands and quality of eggs. Spend a little and buy a pack of the most expensive eggs you can find just once. See if they’re any different.
Boil water , put eggs in water, continue to boil for 7 min, run under cold water
Leave the heat on when you put the eggs in. Add some baking soda. Stick with 7 minutes.
It’s actually fresher eggs that are harder to peel.
Just an FYI
Edit: to just amplify the point to the guy that actively and quickly tried to shut this down, because theres always “that guy” :
https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/What-makes-hard-cooked-eggs-hard-to-peel
I’ve been steaming my eggs for a bit now and definitely get better results peeling. For the soft boil I’ve found I have to be so careful and gentle when I crack them cause if you hit them hard enough the whites break apart and it’s very sad. Delicate little things.
You could try poking a hole in the bottom of the egg. This gets rid of the dimple and may cause water to get in between the membrane.
Don’t turn the heat off. I assume you’re using an older recipe, maybe the one in Food Lab, of Kenji’s which calls for that, but 7 minutes in off-the-boil water is quite simply not enough to set a white. All of his newer recipes call for leaving the heat on throughout.
Steam for 12 minutes, ice cold water for 3 minutes. Shell should peel off easily
Kenji has an method for boiling updated July 2024
[https://www.seriouseats.com/perfect-soft-boiled-eggs](https://www.seriouseats.com/perfect-soft-boiled-eggs)
Gentle simmer for 6 min.
Also almost all these recipes specify eggs being directly out of the refrigerator and cooling before peeling.
I prefer steaming rather than boiling.
Detailed article from the egg master that talks about time, freshness, cooling, and just about everything else.
[https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs](https://www.seriouseats.com/the-secrets-to-peeling-hard-boiled-eggs)
Everyone has provided great tips. What I find is the best method for myself is poking a hole with a thumbtack at the bottom(wider base) of the egg, steaming for 6mins 30 seconds (can also boil for the same amount of time but add eggs to boiling water not from cold), when time is up begin cracking the egg gently with the back of a spoon all around egg so it looks like eggshell spider webs, then place into ice water or cool water, start to peel while warm.
Kenji suggests maintaining the boil or steaming: [https://youtu.be/8IeKQSW1LX8](https://youtu.be/8IeKQSW1LX8)
don’t drop them in cold water. My experience with owning chickens and getting tons of eggs you need to hit the membrane quickly with heat and then shock it with ice bath for it to separate from the shell. I haven’t perfected softboil but hard is 8/5/10 so I assume you can do that same method but just change the times a bit. When I have skipped ice bath cause im out of ice/lazy they don’t peel as well.
I find that peeling with a spoon also helps a lot!
Pure skill issue
I do the Americas test kitchen method. About an inch of water in a pot. Bring to boil. Add up to 6 pre birds. Add the lid. Steam for 5-6 min for soft boiled. Remove from heat and add ice water.
Perfect.
Peel eggs when they are JUST cool enough to handle. The colder they are, the harder to peel. I am saying this as a person who works in a kitchen and has to steam 15-30 eggs daily to put out on a deli bar. I 100% guarantee you no matter how you’ve done your eggs if they’re warm they will peel a million times easier than if they’re cold. Crack them and roll them on a hard surface too in order to maximise breaks in the shell, that’s what you want
My fool proof method, put the eggs in cold into a kettle with cold water, wait until the water boils and when the kettle automatically shuts off start a 15 minute timer. When the timer goes off transfer the eggs into the coldest water you can and peel immediately.
[This article](https://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-way-to-hardboil-eggs-22943315) may help you find a method that works.
I think much depends on your eggs, their age, and your elevation. Maybe other factors.
I have had the best luck with the last method and the Instant Pot method, though I usually shoot for medium/jammy yolks, not soft.
Cold water to shock the membrane, then crack the entire shell in small pieces. This separates the white from the membrane. You may have a small crack in the white when you press to crack the shell. Other than that the egg would be intact
Put salt in the water, bring to boil for a few minutes, turn off and let it sit. Come back in 30-40 mins. Run in cold water and peel.
Don’t turn off the burner until they’re ready. This was exactly my issue too and I finally learned. Turn on the burner. Get it rip roaring boiling. Put all the eggs in. It will drop temp anyway. Put the burner on slightly lower but keep it on the whole time. You can put them in cold water after if you want it doesn’t matter either way.
Thank you all, seems like my issue is that the recipe in The Food Lab differs from the Serious Eats website. The differential is continuing to boil the water vs turning the burner off after boiling.
I should look into steaming my eggs too, that seems like a better method to me.
Today’s eggs were new-ish (less than a week since purchase). The yolk consistency was where I hoped it would be but the whites broke were not cooked all the way through. Seems like the issue was a lack of consistent heat since I turned the burner off.
Hard/soft boiling eggs is so hilarious to me because EVERYONE has a different method and they’re sometimes so vastly different.
I have now started gently tapping each egg with the backside of a spoon a few times, you can hear an audible difference when the membrane separates from the shell. Sometimes it takes 1-2 taps, sometimes 8-10, but you WILL hear the difference. Like [this](https://youtu.be/blqou1URmG4?si=HJIYYcp3U7-oeC1J) video demonstrates. Then just boil them how you typically do, and they do peel so much better. I am very skeptical of any “food hacks” but honestly this has worked so well for me.
Just to add my two cents. My method: I do the tapping, then I put the eggs into cold water. Bring to a boil. As soon as the water starts boiling I cover and turn off the heat. 10 minutes for HB, about 7 for soft boiled (ramen-esque) eggs. It’s perfect every single time.
Pressure cooker for 5 min then release pressure. Perfect. I make a batch per week.
Using a thumb tack to poke a hole in the shell prior to cooking has worked for me 100% of the time regardless of freshness. It’s the only technique that I have ever seen work 100% of the time in the kitchen. It blows my mind every time.
Add baking soda to the water makes a huge difference. When you peel them, start from the bottom/less pointy side. The restaurant I work at was doing a Scotch Egg special for a while, those 2 tips got me from ~50% success rate to almost 90%
I nowadays steam my egg instead of boiling. With this method I think I get 95% of my eggs to peel perfectly and even the ones that fail just get minor bruises. I think I picked it up from some Alton Brown video.
Instant Pot…
555 method for hard boiled…I know there’s a way to do soft boiled.
And the older eggs thing is true
I don’t know if this will help your issue, but I always keep the water gently boiling the whole time (6-7 minutes). If you turn off the water, it will cool as the eggs are cooking, so the whites might not set up firmly
Take eggs right from the fridge.
Steam over gently boiling water for exactly 14 minutes (ie not a furious boil)
Remove eggs from pot, plunge them into cold water for 5 minutes
Perfect soft-boiled eggs every time
I place my eggs in the water before they boil and then crack the shell after 5 minutes of boiling time using a butter knife, etc.
How are you cracking them? I find tiny taps all over the egg to break more of the shell helps keep the actually eggy bit intact for peeling. One big Crack never works for me.
Boil your eggs in salt water
Eggs are too fresh
There are many things you can do to improve your chances of clean shelling already linked to or mentioned by others here, but do know that if the eggs are on the fresher side, you’re sometimes screwed and that’s just life. Just the other day I did a recipe shoot w boiled eggs and had to shell 5 to get 2 good ones.