Ask any egg aficionado how to boil eggs, and they might start by telling you something you weren’t expecting to hear: Start with old eggs. As odd as that sounds, it’s good advice. Fresh eggs are harder to peel once boiled than older ones. So if you’re planning to make deviled eggs, egg salad, or porridge topped with an oozy soft-boiled egg, buy a dozen eggs a week ahead of time and shove them to the back of the fridge. That way, you’re not tempted to burn through them before you commence boiling. And, when it comes time to peel the soft- or hard-cooked eggs, your fingers will thank you.
Got your older eggs ready? Great. Here’s the best way to make perfectly boiled eggs every single time.
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
The first step of the egg-cooking process is to place a large pot of water on the stovetop and bring it to a rolling boil over high heat. (You only need water, by the way; some recipes call for salting the water or adding baking soda, but both are completely unnecessary.) Add enough water so that your eggs will be covered by a few inches. Eggs that aren’t totally submerged in the boiling water won’t cook evenly. If you’re cooking a large batch of eggs, consider using a wide pot so that the eggs all lay in a single layer for more even cooking.
You might have heard that you should drop your eggs into room temperature or cold water and then bring the water to a boil. This is a myth. In our tests, bringing the water to a boil first and then lowering the eggs into the bath made for easy peeling and more accurate timing.
2. Gently lower eggs into the water.
Once the water has come to a rolling boil, grab your cold eggs straight out of the fridge (the temperature shock will make them easier to peel). Use a large spoon to gently place eggs in the hot water. If you drop the eggs in haphazardly, they can hit the bottom of the pot and crack, leaving you with floating wispy egg whites strewn throughout the pot.
One exception to the nothing-but-water rule: Soft-Boiled Tea Eggs
3. Boil eggs for 4 to 14 minutes.
Set a timer and let the eggs cook to your desired doneness. Adjust the heat as needed, keeping the water at a steady simmer; you want the eggs to cook, but too vigorous a boil will leave them thrashing around the pot like they’ve been dropped into a mosh pit.
For soft-boiled eggs (the kind you spoon right out of the shell), pull your fighters from the pot at 4 minutes. At 7–8 minutes, they’ll technically be hard-boiled but with a slightly jammy yolk. For those who like drier hard-boiled eggs, you can keep cooking up to 14 minutes. After that, you’re likely to encounter an unsightly green ring around the perimeter of the yolk, a hallmark of overcooked eggs. We determined the cooking times below using large eggs; for medium eggs or extra-large eggs, your results may vary. Expect to experiment a bit to find the total time for your ideal level of doneness.
How long to boil an egg:
- 4 minutes: tender egg whites with a runny soft-boiled yolk
- 5 minutes: firm egg whites with a runny yolk
- 6 minutes: firm egg whites with a gooey yolk
- 8 minutes: firm egg whites with a fully set but jammy yolk
- 10 minutes: firm egg whites with a firm pale yolk that’s just a bit soft in the center
- 12 minutes: firm egg whites with a firm hard-boiled yolk
- 14 minutes: firm egg whites with a crumbly, dry pale yolk (ideal for deviled eggs)
