Eggs really should never be hard-boiled (in their shells), but rather hard-cooked; rigorous boiling causes eggs to jostle and crack, leaving the whites tough. The following steps show you how to prepare and peel hard-cooked eggs.
Steps for preparing and peeling hard-cooked eggs
- Place the eggs in a saucepan and add cold water to cover them by about 1 inch. Use a pan large enough to hold the eggs in a single layer, with no eggs on top of each other.
- Cover the saucepan and bring the water to a boil over high heat. You want the water to start boiling as quickly as possible.
- Turn off the heat. If your stove is electric, remove the pan from the burner.
- Let the eggs stand in the covered pan: 12 minute for medium-sized eggs, 15 minutes for large eggs, and 18 minutes for jumbo-sized eggs. No peeking under the cover! You want to keep the heat in the pan to cook the eggs.
- Carefully drain the eggs in a colander and run cold water over them.
