HARD-COOOKED EGGS
Everyone wants two things in a hard-boiled (sometimes called “hard-cooked”) egg: that it’s cooked through, yet no bitter green ring surrounds the yolk; and an egg that’s easy to peel.
Getting those two things down however, is the devil in hard-boiling eggs. Overcooking is manageable, but the peeling is the pain. Blame the latter on the membrane encasing the entirety of the raw egg that lies just below and against the shell. Most HB ways merely adhere it to the shell and render a clean, slick peel difficult, if not impossible.
I’ve tried everything to avoid that: using old eggs because the sticky membrane supposedly has shrunk away; cooking the eggs both on and off the heat; poking a hole in the fat end; dousing the eggs in an ice bath to shock the shell away from the cooked white; cracking the egg at only the fat end; cracking the egg all over; peeling under running water—everything. One trick may work one time, but it doesn’t the next. The kitchen gets sad.
I’ve found one way, though, that works nearly all the time: lowering the eggs into already boiling (or steaming) water, rather than the off-suggested start in cool water that’s then brought to a boil or simmer.
Introducing the eggs that way—it doesn’t matter whether they are cold or room temp—shocks the membrane away from the shell (except, it seems, with eggs fresh from the coop that morning).
So, for up to 6 hard-cooked eggs, bring a couple quarts of water to a boil; then carefully lower the eggs into the boiling water; bring the water back to a very low simmer and cook the eggs in the bare simmer for exactly 12 minutes at Denver’s mile-high elevation. (If you wish orangery yolks, cook at the simmer for 10 minutes.)
Drain the eggs and peel them while they’re still hot under very cold running water—mostly so you don’t burn your fingers.
(Much of the successful HB way comes from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt's "The Food Lab," W. W. Norton 2015, and his same methodology at seriouseats.com)
RECIPE: Lydia’s salad dressing
From The Ballymaloe Cookbook by Myrtle Allen (Gill and Macmillan, 1977)
I was asked to make a “green salad” for a St. Patrick’s Day dinner. “The Irish don’t eat green salad,” I said. But they do, as Myrtle Allen says, “as standard fare for Sunday evening suppers. It accompanied cold meat, probably left over from the midday joint.” This dressing, utilizing sieved hard-boiled eggs, is from Lydia Strangman, says Allen, “an unmarried Quaker lady of strict principles.” It is delicious.
Ingredients
2 hard-boiled eggs
1/4 teaspoon dried mustard
1 level teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
4 tablespoons cream
Directions
Sieve the egg yolks and add the sugar, salt, and mustard. Blend in the vinegar and cream. Chop the egg whites and add some to the sauce. Scatter the rest over the salad. Do not dress the salad beforehand with this sauce; it will not coat the leaf. Hand it separately in a sauceboat.