How to boil an egg so that it doesn't burst??

[Skyler]

Ok stop laughing now. I am serious. I cannot seem to successfully boil an egg hard or soft .
Please help .

cold water in pan, egg in, put the gas ring on high and boil it for 6 mins

or stick a needle into the bottom the egg (dip needle in boiling water first so its clean. the whole will stop egg bursting.

You need to prick it with a pin. Or you can get a special egg pricker from John Lewis. Prick the fat end.

i mean the hole not whole my typing is awful today

The key is that your eggs have to be at room-temperature. I no longer keep my eggs in the fridge, and they no longer break when I boil them.

Either put them directly into boiling water for 3m (runny egg), 4m(soft yolk, firm white) or 8m(hardboiled), or put them in cold water, bring it to the boil and simmer for 1m, then take the pan off the heat, put the lid on and leave them for 6m(runny) or 8m(firm). I don't think they can be hardboiled the second way. You may also need to experiment because your eggs may not be the same size as mine, or your stove may be different too (this works best on gas stoves). You also need to make sure that the pan is fairly small and the water not at a roiling boil so that the eggs don't smash into each other.

Rock on Delia!

How could I forget that! Of course you must prick the fat end first! Actually, jsut to be double-sure, I generally prick both ends!

Run the egg under the hot tap for a while so its not too hot when you put it into the hot water. (so that the shell doesn't expand too quickly, and crack)

I mean, so that its not too cold !!

My grandma taught me that to stop an egg cracking while you're boiling it you should put the egg and a teaspoon of vinegar into a saucepan of cold water, bring to the boil, then time 3 minutes if you like your egg with a set white and a soft yolk, or 15 minutes for hard boiled.

ive never ever pricked an egg in my life!!!

Oh! I never prick my eggs. Just put in boiling water for 4-5 mins so it's dippable, never had any burst. I am no Delia though.

put the egg in cold cold water, if the water starts off warm, and the egg is straight from the fridge it does tend to burst.

if it bursts u can put a teaspoon of vinegar in to seal the hole and no ur eggs won't be vinegary!!

i would secind the room temperature eggs tho, gets abit complicated when i have to remember about cold water/boiling water so i just wait til the water is boiling b4 i out my room temperature egg in!!

( i have a simple brain!!!)

Ok you can laugh a bit more at me now.
I have just flooded my kitchen .
I had cooked the eggs to hardboiled, had them burst, but put them under the cold tap to cool them down so they would be easier to peel. I then came on here to post my question and supervise dd's lunch. In the meantime the pan blocked the plughole and the water filled the sink and cascaded over to flood the kitchen . DD1 drew my attention to it by saying uh-oh mummy. I am blaming the eggs of course .
My eggs were room temperature and the water cold then bought to boiling with the eggs. I think pricking the egg is the key. I now remember my Mum having an egg pricker. My eggs seem to explode out of the shells.
Thanks for all the posts!

brought to boiling....

By a Min-Chicky Egg Boiler - perfect eggs every time!

Buy

LOL!!

Well at least I don't feel pathetic about the fact that I learned how long to boil an egg for from my first ever viewing of Big Cook Little Cook... I just shove them in boiling water straight from the fridge never had a problem!

I am thinking about this and I think PrettyCandles may have sussed my problem. I don't turn the heat down when they are boiling so they are bouncing around and obviously the shells are therefore breaking......Gosh how obvious . Wish me luck for next time lol.

If you stick a steel spoon in with the egg it won't break- dunno why but it doesn't. And agree you should turn the heat down once it has come to the boil

I don't turn the heat down - and so far I've never had eggs that bounce around and break in the saucepan! Maybe you're using too big a pan, or putting too much water in? You only need to just cover the eggs.

Thank you
I am actually quite reassured that there is so much advice about boiling an egg. It is obviously not as simple as people think. The pan I have at the moment is huge as I was doing four eggs today so this could be a factor too.

Hi Skyler
dh is the eggmeister in our house and he always pricks them. Occasionally one bursts anyway but 99% of the time they don't. So I agree with that being the key

Hello Found
Thanks for that tip. How are you and ds? How is the weaning going and is the sleep issue any better? dd2 is still up at least twice a night but four times is more usual, hence my flooding of the kitchen I am sure. Weaning however is going well and she enjoyed some hard boiled egg yesterday after my efforts .