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How many minutes to cook eggs. Video
Delightfully tender soft-boiled eggs, firm hard-boiled eggs, elegant bagged eggs – all these methods of boiling eggs boil down to the exact number of minutes of boiling and a few subtleties that are not at all difficult to remember.
How many minutes to cook eggs: video
How to cook hard boiled eggs
Hard-boiled eggs are not only an excellent base for breakfast or a light snack, but also a frequent ingredient in pies, salads, and also an addition to various soups. It is very important that such an egg does not have an unpleasant gray rim around the bright yolk, so that the white does not turn into rubber or, conversely, the yolk and white do not turn out to be liquid. Avoiding these culinary disasters will help the correct sequence of actions and strict adherence to the boil time.
Just as the famous heroes of Swift, Laputians, could not come to a consensus on which end to break the eggs, so the culinary specialists cannot agree in any way in which water to put them in order to boil them hard – boiling or cold. Proponents of the first method say that they don’t see the difference, and the cooking time is significantly reduced. Those who advocate the second option argue that this is how you will definitely save the eggs from cracking.
Those who boil eggs in boiling water suggest piercing them with a special machine to avoid cracks, or adding a little vinegar, salt or soda to the water, which helps to coagulate the protein and thus prevent it from “slipping away” through the cracks.
Regardless of the method of preparation, eggs should initially be at room temperature.
Place one or more eggs in a saucepan or ladle. If you are boiling a lot of eggs, pay attention to the fact that they should all lie on the bottom of the dish in one layer, or it is worth boiling them in several stages. Pour cold water over the eggs so that the liquid rises 3–4 centimeters above them. Bring water to a boil. You can cover the eggs with the lid and turn off the heat, or you can lower the heat to medium and cook the eggs uncovered. Eggs covered with a lid will be ready in 12-15 minutes, eggs in boiling water will cook in 10-12 minutes. The exact cooking time also depends on the size of the egg. The smaller it is, the faster it will be ready, and vice versa.
To stop the cooking process, be sure to chill the eggs quickly. There are also two ways here. You can gently drain the hot water and pour the cold water into a pot of eggs, or you can use a slotted spoon to remove the eggs from the boiling water and place them in a bowl of ice water.
If you boil eggs for longer than 15 minutes or leave them in hot water for a long time after cooking, the yolk will become discolored and give off an unpleasant sulfurous odor.
How to cook soft-boiled eggs in a bag
Making a soft-boiled egg isn’t much more difficult than making it hard-boiled. Here, too, time plays a decisive role. If you underexpose the egg a little, you will have liquid protein. Overexposure – instead of a soft-boiled egg, you will end up with an egg in a bag, with a yolk grasping at the edges, still liquid in the middle. But by boiling an egg in a bag and not calculating the time, you can get either a soft-boiled egg – with a delicate yolk and grasped protein, or a hard-boiled egg with a “granular” yolk.
Use a ladle or saucepan large enough to hold the eggs in one layer. Fill the crockery with water so that it will cover the whole food afterwards, and bring the liquid to a boil. Take eggs at room temperature and, using a slotted spoon or tablespoon, place them in boiling water. Reduce heat, water should boil “softly” without bubbling. To boil soft-boiled eggs, cook: – a large egg – 3 minutes 30 seconds; – medium egg – exactly 3 minutes; – a small egg, for example a quail – 2 minutes 40 seconds.
To get an egg in a bag, boil: – a large egg – 4 minutes 20 seconds; – medium egg – 3 minutes 50 seconds; – small egg – 3 minutes 30 seconds.
Dip the finished eggs in cold water for 1-2 minutes. Drain and refill with fresh cold water for 1-2 minutes.
Choose eggs that are at least 5-7 days old for boiling. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to free them from the shell without damaging the proteins.
The famous “culinary chemist” Heston Blumenthal prepares soft-boiled eggs in a slightly different way. He puts them in a saucepan of cold water, just like for hard-boiled cooking, covers them with a lid and brings them to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, Blumenthal turns off the heat or removes the pan from the stove and holds the egg under the lid in hot water for exactly 6 minutes. He serves hot eggs immediately, cutting off the lid from them with a special device, a guillotine.
If you have mastered almost all the methods of boiling eggs, it’s time to move on to the top – making poached eggs. These are soft-boiled eggs, boiled without shells. This is the best way to boil fresh eggs, as you won’t be peeling them. To boil one egg, take: – 1 pinch of finely ground salt; – ¼ a coffee spoon of white wine vinegar.
Boil a soft-boiled egg or in a bag
Fill a small saucepan halfway with water and bring the liquid to a boil. Season with salt. Break the egg into a small bowl and drip the vinegar. Take a whisk and whisk the salt water until a funnel forms in the center. Pour the egg into it and cook for exactly 3 minutes. To keep track of the time, it is best to use an hourglass or timer. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and serve immediately.