The breakfast egg is known to be particularly popular. The egg is cooked in its shell in a pot full of boiling hot water, then rinsed, and can then be enjoyed. However, peeling it often turns into a real struggle – but why is that?
How long do I boil an egg?
Good to know: boiled eggs are divided into different categories:
- hard-boiled eggs
- medium-boiled eggs
- soft-boiled eggs.
Here, the consistency of the yolk is decisive for the designation of the egg.
How long do I boil a hard-boiled egg?
For hard-boiled eggs, where the yolk is also quite firm, a cooking time of 8-10 minutes is usually estimated.
How long do I boil a medium-boiled egg?
Medium-boiled eggs with a firm yolk that is still a little liquid in the middle require a cooking time of 6-8 minutes.
How long do I boil a soft-boiled egg?
Soft-boiled eggs, on the other hand, have a quite liquid yolk; here the cooking time is 3-5 minutes.
How do I cook a perfect breakfast egg?
Of course, mainly fresh, i.e., young eggs should be used for the cooking process. How old the eggs are can be found out quite well by the colored stamp on the eggs or the note on the cardboard packaging. However, if the packaging is not available and no stamp can be found on the eggs, you can also use the following trick:
Freshness test for eggs
Place the egg in a container with enough water: fresh eggs sink and the bottom of the egg floats slightly upwards. Older eggs, on the other hand, stand vertically in the water. The air bubble in the egg has become somewhat larger with age, which explains the buoyancy. Very old eggs, however, float horizontally in the water – these should better not be used anymore.
Why should I add salt to the cooking water now?
If the water in the pot is bubbling vigorously, the fresh eggs can be added. To make the eggs easier to peel after the cooking process, you should add some salt or alternatively a small splash of vinegar to the cooking water.
The reason for this is that the electrically charged atoms of the proteins in the egg white are enclosed by the salt ions (or hydrogen ions when using vinegar) in the water, which reduces static repulsion and thus accelerates the coagulation of the proteins. This tip is also useful for dyeing eggs at Easter time, as the eggs are less likely to crack due to faster coagulation.
Rinsing boiled eggs
To make boiled eggs can be peeled easily, you should boil them in salt water and then immediately rinse them with cold water. I then always put them in a container with cold water for a few minutes, where they are completely covered. Then they can usually be peeled wonderfully!
Why are older eggs easier to peel?
The fact that some eggs are easier to peel than others actually has to do with age. The longer an egg sits, the more air gets through the eggshell into the interior, while water and carbon dioxide escape instead. As a result, the outer shell membrane of the egg gradually detaches from the inner shell membrane, making it easier to peel.
Tips and tricks around the egg
- If the yolk is slightly bluish or grayish at the edge, this discoloration indicates that it has been heated too strongly or for too long.
- Eggs should preferably be eaten with plastic cutlery. If you eat the egg with silver cutlery, the surface of the spoon reacts immediately with silver sulfide, the taste changes, and even the silver spoon turns blackish.
- Eggs should better not be rinsed after the cooking process. The protective layer that was created by boiling is destroyed by rinsing, and bacteria can enter the egg through the eggshell. After just a few days, the bacteria have multiplied to such an extent that the egg spoils.
Photo by Sabine, meinhaushalt.at
