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Stick an egg in boiling water for a while and you end up with a boiled egg. But how long should you leave it in the saucepan if you want dippy egg and soldiers for your breakfast? For hard boiled eggs, what’s the limit between a perfect yellow yolk and an overcooked one with a grim green ring around it?
We spent the day boiling eggs to find out just how long you need to boil an egg to produce a runny yolk, soft-boiled egg and a hard-boiled egg.
What we used
- A saucepan of boiling water
- 2x 59g eggs
- 1x 60g egg
- 1x 64g egg
- Slotted spoon
- 4x shot glasses
- Bowl of cold water
- Butter knife
We started our eggsperiment by picking out four medium eggs: 2x 59g, a 60g, and a 64g.
As you can see from the list above and our pictures below, if you don’t have any egg cups then shot glasses will do. Making use of things you’ve already got and repurposing is a good way of saving money. You can buy a set of four stainless steel egg cups on Amazon for £7.20 plus postage, or a set of four ceramic Cooks Professional egg cups for £13 plus postage. Using some shot glasses we found in the cupboard cost us nothing. No shot glasses either? Go for a rummage in your cupboards and find anything suitable.
Once our saucepan hit a rolling boil, we began our testing. (If you’re egg floats when you drop in the water, it doesn’t necessarily mean the egg is out of date. If you’re worried double check the best before date.)
A three minute boil
First up, a 3 minute boil. We placed our first egg into the saucepan, started the timer, and removed it at exactly 3 minutes, placing it into a bowl of cold water to stop it cooking.
The finished product? It was uncooked. Very runny, we didn’t chance eating this one and we recommend you don’t either. We weren’t sure whether it was safe to re-cook the egg after it had been cooled, cracked open, and sat on the side for a while, so we decided it was best to leave this one.
A four minute boil
This attempt was edible. Huzzah! But, it was a bit on the snotty side, so a four-minute boiled egg might not be for you.
A four-minute boil is a prime example of egg-eating preference. If it’s to your taste, go forth and eat. If not, you’ll need to boil it for a touch longer.
A five minute boil
Perfection. Five minutes was the right length of time for a soft-boiled egg, ideal for dipping soldiers.
We thoroughly enjoyed eating this one with some hot, buttered, toasted soldiers. You might find that a large or extra large egg will need another 30 seconds, or longer, to produce the same runny consistency our medium egg achieved. Going the other way, a smaller egg might be more jammy than runny after five minutes.
A 10 minute boil
Our fourth and final egg. This time, we were going for a hard-boiled egg. According to BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver, 10 minutes would give us a classic, hard-boiled egg. We placed our last egg in the boiling water, started our timer, and waited.
Ten minutes gave us exactly what we were expecting: the white was fully set and the majority of the yolk was cooked through. The finished product wasn’t rubbery or chalky; the yolk was bright and there was no sign of a green ring around the yolk – an indicator of overcooking.
The very centre of the yolk was still jammy, and we reckon another 30 seconds, or even a minute would’ve done the job of producing a fully hard-boiled egg. A hard-boiled egg is what you want if you’re planning to make egg mayo.
As you can see, cutting the top off each egg was a task in itself. It might’ve been an easier job if we had switched our butter knife for something sharper. But if you’re a keen boiled egg eater, and your budget allows, then you can buy a gadget specifically to decapitate eggs. The Lakeland Boiled Egg Topper costs £15 or you can go for the cheaper KitchenCraft one for £6, ProCook does one for £7, or you can head to Amazon and get an egg topper for a similar price.
