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Best Soft Boiled Egg Recipe

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you a fan of soft boiled eggs? I really enjoy them.

But they aren’t exactly a cinch to make.  Mostly because the timing has to be just right.  They are easy to over or under cook.

I make them so infrequently, I always have to look up the recipe (timing).  This past weekend, when I was looking up a recipe, I noticed that Cook’s Illustrated had one.

A quick sidenote on quick’s illustrated.  if you EVER see a recipe by them, use it.  They are the scientists of food.  They try out a million different combinations of a single recipe until they get it just right.  Other people get lucky and get end up with good recipes, cook’s illustrated get’s them by experimenting and trying out every possible combination.

Ok, back to the soft boiled eggs.  I like this recipe because it makes complete sense.

If you have a pot of boiling water and add 1 or 2 eggs to the pot, it’ll likely continue to boil. If you add 4 or 6, it’ll stop boiling for a little bit and eventually come back.  Here’s the problem.  Most soft boiled egg recipes are independent of the number of eggs you are cooking.  BUT the number of eggs is critical when you are using a pot of boiling water.

How do we solve this problem?

Use steam to cook the eggs.

Fill a pan (or a pot….anything with a lid) with about 1/2″ of water.  Put it on the stove and bring to a boil.  Gently place the eggs into the water and cover.  Set a timer for 6 minutes.  At the end of 6 minutes, rinse the eggs under cold water.  Then crack them open and enjoy!  I like mine with a tiny bit of butter and salt.

Why does this work? The cold eggs – because they are curved – don’t touch very much of the water so whether you cook 2 or 6, the pan keeps steaming.

Now you may be thinking, “Oh Bryn, perhaps your right, but I still love my recipe.”  Well, does your recipe take 7 minutes?  Didn’t think so.  Getting 1/2″ of water to boil takes less than a minute.  Your pot of water takes a lot longer.

So give it a try!  What are you waiting for?!