Oh FFS, why am I incapable of boiling an egg??

[BertieBotts]

[fed up] [hungry]

Is the electricity/gas off?

Have you lost all your saucepans?

Has there been a water leak and the mains have been turned off?

Is the oven broken?

Please explain problem!

wait til water boils

3 mins

how hard is that

I did it for 5 minutes and the white was still runny. Is that putting the egg into cold water though? I tend to put it in once it has boiled.

I ended up doing another one which was overdone slightly but never mind I just get frustrated that I can't seem to get it right (always too runny and runny white is yuk)

I am tempted to just buy one of those gadgety things they had on Dragon's Den!

Try putting in cold and then bring to the boil, turn off and put lid on, leave for 4 mins (for med egg, 5 for large).

You need one of these They're fab!! (Okay, its the lazy way to do it, but works fantastically!!)

I can't boil an egg either. It's not that I can't cook, I can do lots of delicious and quite complicated things but I've never sucessfully soft-boiled an egg or baked a sponge cake. I take comfort in the fact that my scrambled eggs, poached eggs and omlettes are perfect, and only eat boiled eggs when staying at my parents' house (my Dad is the king of boiled eggs).

Get one of [url=www.amazon.co.uk/Egg-Perfect-Colour-Changing-Timer/dp/B0000CFGB5]these[/url]. Cheap, easy, doesn't take up much room. Perfect eggs, every time. You can put the eggs in boiling water, cold water, whatever.

Oh, fgs. It's this.

I think that the 3 minute timing is for room temperature eggs, not ones from the fridge.
I cant do boiled eggs either, so I do poached ones. You can still have them dippy.
(except I can't have runny eggs at the moment... or so MW tells me)

Hi NQC, I haven't "seen" you on here for ages. Did you know I have a new DD now?

No way isn3 minutes long enough for an egg unless you like raw white

I tend to do mine for 4.5 mins or 5 mins which should mean theres no raw white but the yolk is still runny.

(but then again I'm no Delia, believe me )

They have the colour change egg timer in the poundshop - brilliant and a real bargain

Bring water to the boil
When it is bubbling, add egg
Time for 6 mins 30 seconds exactly
Stick under cold tap

Everyone says much less time than this, but I really can't stand any runny white. This timing does give you a dunkable yolk

What NQC said but I got mine from Lakeland. Works every time.

Hi bran - I think somebody told me you had a new girl, how goes?

She had a boy.

It's great thanks NQC. She settled in very well after a long handover, because she's very shy. She's the polar opposite to DS in just about every personality trait but they get on well despite that. I'm enjoying myself buying far to many clothes for her and complaining about ubiquitous pinkness of girls shoes.

We visited my parents the week before last and she had a boiled egg for the first time, and loved it, so I may have to buy your timer thingy.

Ignore me

It was bratnav who had the boy.

Sorry.

I was ignoring you Fab. Couldn't you tell? I do have a boy, but I've had him for ages so it's not news to NQC.

The timer thingy does really work. They sell it at John Lewis Oxford Street - dunno about your nearest John Lewis, worth a check. Costs about £5 there, last time I checked. It does take a bit of practice to learn that, say, you like your eggs at just over 'soft', but still, it vastly reduces the number of variables in the equation! (number of eggs, eggs from fridge/room temperature, temperature of water, start at cold/start at boiling, time cooked).

And congrats on the girl. Different personality helps, I think, with them getting along. At least, mine are v different, and get on pretty well, these days.

I've learned to take an egg out of the pan on a spoon when I think its ready and look at how quickly the water evaporates off it. If it takes its time its not done. If you can visibly watch the egg dry at a nice quick pace its ready. If it dries instantly its hard boiled.
Takes a bit of practise but works for me