Name: Superb Soft Boiled Egg
Prep time: 6 min
Ingredients: large or extra large egg(s); water

Aren’t eggs the most fabulous little packages?!

Inside that little white oval sphere is the potential for so many dishes. I can eat eggs any time of the day. Scrambled or sunny side up for brekkie, egg salad sandwich for lunch, devilled eggs for that perfect retro appetizer, or even an omelette or poached egg over rice for dinner. Eggs are vital for custards, soufflés, pavlovas and meringues, most baking ventures, quiche, frittatas… the list is endless.

This morning I was making myself the ultimate in egg simplicity: the soft-boiled egg. There is something about breaking the shell open and finding that oozy yolk beckoning for a piece of toast to be dunked into it. And it’s just so happy looking, don’t you think?!

So my hubby asked, ‘Are you going to put this up on the blog?’ At first I thought, Why? Doesn’t everyone know how to make a soft-boiled egg? But then I thought about it, how many times in the past, did I start out to make a soft-boiled egg, only to open it up and find the yolk half way to hard? Don’t get me wrong all you hard-boiled egg lovers out there, there is a time and place for the hard yolk. But when your tastebuds are in anticipation of the liquid gold of a soft-boiled egg (come on fellow soft yolk lovers, give me some support 🙂 ) to find it all solidified is a tad disappointing. Might as well turn it into an egg salad sandwich at this point. I know I needed to find the perfect method to produce the soft-boiled egg of my dreams. And this is it. The yolk is runny, the white is just set, all is grand.

Steaming, The Superior Way

This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and replaces my old method. It is fool proof. It relies on a method I am totally intrigued by: sorta steaming. Instead of using a full pot of water, you are submerging the egg(s) into only 1/2 inch of boiling water. This keeps the temperature steady. The recommendation was 390 seconds (6 minutes and 30 seconds) and it totally worked!!! Mine is a 6 minute egg (360 seconds) just to get it extra runny and if I’m keeping it in the shell. This works totally for a medium to large egg. But if you are using an extra large egg, up the time to 7 minutes.

The other disclaimer I have, try and use room temperature eggs for this method. Or at least not fresh from the fridge. Give it a chance to sit out for a bit first. Such a difference using fresh from the fridge eggs will have on the outcome, in that it will take longer to achieve the desired result. That little cold egg can have major impact! It will definitely be on the runnier side.

Jammy Eggs

Increase your time to 8 minutes for the perfect jammy eggs to top a ramen bowl, pasta etc. At 8 minutes the egg whites are set enough to peel around, and the yolks still have just enough softness to have that perfect texture.

For the perfect hard boiled eggs, with no weird green or grey ring around the yolk, steam for 10 minutes. Make sure the water doesn’t run out.

Peeling Eggs

I am sharing how I peel those eggs as seen in the photos. There can be nothing worse than after having boiled the perfect egg, than to destroy it by mangling the peeling process. Obviously if you are just going to eat it out of the shell a la dunking toast into it, this is of no concern to you. But if you want to use the eggs in ramen soup, on top of toast, or for devilled egg, you want a clean looking outside. This is what I do:

First I crack and peel gently the top and bottom of the egg. Then I crack and make a little seam down one edge. Carefully lifting one side (and grabbing the membrane at the same time) I just fold it back all the way around. It comes off in one fell swoop every time! See photos below.

See how I put a good jammy egg to work in my Asparagus Fettuccini.

Love Jen