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What About This . . .?

By Wayne William Cipriano

By Wayne William Cipriano

Hard boiled egg redo: 

Sometime ago I wrote a column about the best way to shell hard boiled eggs.  The method involved placing a hard boiled egg within a small plastic container filled with some cold water and shaking the egg vigorously for a few seconds.  We used a lot of hard boiled eggs and when we heard of this method and tried it out, we were surprised at how well it worked.  I thought it would be a nice gesture to pass it on and, I recall, I castigated everyone I’ve ever spoken with for not telling us about it until this point in our lives. 

Well, we saw a new-to-us-technique that works even better and following my own declaration that such information should be shared, and suspecting many others may not have seen the television that taught it to us, I know present this technique to you for your hard- boiled-egg-enjoyment.  

This method goes beyond merely shelling hard boiled eggs.  It raises the entire hard boiled egg experience to a near perfection level.  

A word of warning:  This technique must be followed precisely to garner hard boiled perfection. Any variation voids my personal guarantee that this is as good as hard boiled eggs can get.  

1) Bring in the water in a good sized sauce pan to a HIGH ROLLING BOIL.

2) Gently drop fresh eggs into the BOILING WATER.  Being sure each egg is well-below water level. 

3) Wait until water returns to a HIGH ROLLING BOIL and only then set a timer for SIX MINUTES.

4) AFTER SIX MINUTES of a HIGH ROLLING BOIL, turn off heat, cover pan.  

5) Allow eggs to remain in the sauce pan for an additional SIX MINUTES. 

6) After SIX MINUTES in the slowly cooling water of the sauce pan remove the eggs and submerge them in an ICE WATER BATH (lots of ice) for SIX MINUTES. 

7) After SIX MINUTES in the ICE WATER BATH remove the eggs, PLACE ON SMOOTH HARD SURFACE AND ROLL EGGS with the palm of your hand enough to crack the shells without crushing the eggs. 

8) Return the eggs to ICE WATER BATH fingering gently and the shells will just about fall off. 

This sounds a lot more complicated than it really is, the big deals are the SIX MINUTE intervals that must be observed.  Use a timer. 

If you follow these steps exactly, and the shells do not almost effortlessly fall from the eggs, you didn’t follow these steps exactly.  When you do, and the eggs fall from their shells almost miraculously, you MUST pass this technique on to others and you MAY send me a cigar or two.