How to boil perfect eggs for Easter
Dyeing eggs for Easter is cool, but boiling them can bring you down. Eggs crack and blister. If they look perfect outside, all pastel pink, yellow and blue, their insides may reveal an ugly truth: grey-green yolks that no one wants to eat.
Don’t worry. I’ve got you. When I ran a catering business, I boiled lots of eggs, usually two dozen at a time, for deviled egg platters. Just about every egg was perfect.
I used chef Julia Child’s method in her book, “The Way to Cook.” The instructions are similar to those the all-egg-knowing American Egg Board recommends. No tricks or special equipment are required. All you’ll need is a pot with a tight-fitting lid, water, eggs, your stove and these steps:
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1. Place large eggs in a saucepot wide enough to hold them in single layer.
2. Add cold water to cover the eggs by 1 inch.
3. Place the pot on high heat and bring the eggs to a boil. As soon as they come to a boil, place the lid on the pot and take the pot off the burner.
4. Let the eggs stand in the pot for 17 minutes, according to Child. The American Egg Board recommends 12 minutes for medium-size eggs, 15 minutes for large eggs and 18 minutes for extra-large eggs. That green ring around the yolk forms when eggs cook for too long, so set a timer.
5. Just before the timer goes off, fill a big bowl with ice water.
6. When the timer buzzes, don’t linger. Drain the eggs immediately and transfer them to the bowl of ice water.
7. Cool the eggs completely in the ice water and then refrigerate them. Thoroughly chilled eggs are easier to peel than warm eggs.
Keep in mind that fresh eggs are more difficult to peel, so use eggs that have been refrigerated for at least 10 days.
Hard-boiled eggs are easiest to peel right after cooling. To peel eggs, the American Egg Board advises gently tapping each egg on a countertop until the shell is finely crackled all over. Roll the egg between your hands to loosen the shell. Starting peeling at the large end, holding the egg under cold, running water to help ease the shell off.
If you boil and color eggs in the days before Easter, don’t fret if they don’t peel perfectly. If you’re making deviled eggs, load extras like herbs, diced ham or shrimp and minced red bell peppers into the filling and mound a heaping spoonful onto each halved egg white. Set the deviled eggs on a thick bed of fresh parsley. No one will notice the rough edges.
If you want to fluff up the filling with or without adding extras, make a small batch of instant or homemade mashed potatoes, unseasoned and unsalted. If you go homemade, make sure the potatoes are pureed and the mash is soft and fluffy. Stir mashed potatoes into the yolk mixture ¼ cup at a time, tasting as you go to get the flavor and quantity of filling you desire. If you’re stirring in extras, do that after you have added the potatoes.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Easter 2023: How to boil perfect eggs
