How to Cook (and Peel) Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

Have you ever cut open a hard-boiled egg and encountered a green halo around the outside of the yolk? Or smelled a funky, sulfury odor?

Those are the telltale signs of overcooked eggs. Eggs contain a sulfur-based compound that when heated too long or at too high a temperature will turn your egg yolks green and funky-smelling.

However, if you cook your eggs properly, this won't happen. You'll have nice, perfectly golden-yellow yolks and no funky smell.

Easy to Peel Hard-Boiled Eggs

But before we get to the technique, let's talk about peeling the eggs. There's a common misconception that one cooking technique or another will make it easier or harder to peel the egg. This just isn't the case.

The main thing that makes an egg easy or hard to peel is how fresh the egg is. It's as simple as that. Fresher eggs are harder to peel, which is why those eggs you bought from the farmers market may not be the best candidates for hard-boiling.

There's a thin membrane underneath the eggshell, and it forms a little air pocket at the bottom of the egg. As the egg ages, that pocket expands, which helps the shell separate from the cooked egg more easily.

So if you want to make the peeling experience easier, try using eggs that have been in your fridge for a week or so.

How Long Should I Boil the Eggs?

The technique described below is a basic template, but there are variables. Different stovetops will produce more heat (and thus boil water faster) than others, and not all pots are the same size or hold the same amount of water. We use 15 minutes as a baseline, but your cooking time might vary.

For this hard-boiled egg recipe, you'll need a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. You really do need the lid because if heat escapes through the top of the pot, it will slow down the cooking.

Getting the eggs to your liking may require a little bit of a trial and error of pulling one egg out a few minutes before the 15-minute mark to check its doneness. Once you determine the exact timing that works for you, stick with it. What matters most is the technique of letting the eggs stand in the covered pot, off the heat—you're basically steaming the eggs.

You can eat them right away once they're cooked, or you can refrigerate them. Hard-boiled eggs are great on their own straight from the fridge with salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Classic Deviled Eggs

37 mins

61 ratings