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Post by nana on Aug 30, 2015 18:04:30 GMT -5
And, in the "it is never too late to learn new tricks" category, I came across the "recipe" for perfect soft boiled eggs in a Cooks Illustrated magazine, and laughed, because who needs a recipe to boil an egg? But reading the article I had to admit that sometimes my soft boiled eggs come out a little over or underdone...not always, but sometimes...So I tried it and as I should have known, they were spot on. The eggs were perfect. Those Test Kitchen recipes can often be a little fussy, but I have learned that if you follow their directions to the letter, it will come out awesome every time. Here it is: The secret is you don't boil them, you steam them. It works just as well for one or a dozen, although if you are cooking more than one or two, you'll want to use a steamer basket to lower the eggs in all at the same time.
Put no more than a half inch of water in a pot with a tight fitting lid and bring it to a boil. Lower a cold egg(s) directly from the fridge into the water(or use a steamer basket) and put the lid on. Let it steam EXACTLY 6 1/2 minutes, then stop the cooking process by running cold water over the egg(s). The whites will be fully cooked but tender, and the yolk warm but still liquid. Eat it with hot buttered toast and let it remind you of the meals your mom made you when you were home sick from school.
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Post by mach12 on Aug 31, 2015 0:46:54 GMT -5
I'd forgotten about doing them this way and only did it once. My problem is getting them to peel after cooking them and someone told us they'd peel fine if we steamed them instead of boiling in water. It really cooked them nicely but we didn't see an improvement with peeling them. We have chickens and our eggs are really fresh, which makes them tougher to peel. We've tried all kinds of stuff like vinegar, baking soda, different feed ingredients (they free range but also have a feeder in their coop) and a couple of other suggestions and the only thing that we've found that consistently works is to let the eggs come to room temperature before cooking them. Maybe I should try steaming them from room temperature and see how that works. The only eggs we're still having trouble with are the blue eggs from our Ameraucanas - won't peel for anything so they're for stuff like mixes or frying.
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Post by nana on Aug 31, 2015 8:40:01 GMT -5
I have chickens too, and I think it also has to do with how each individual chicken's eggs just are. Some just peel easier than others, and some have weaker or stronger membranes or thicker or waterier whites...I don't peel a soft boiled egg, of course, just scoop it out with a spoon. When I know I'm going to need peelable hard boiled eggs, like at Easter or for deviled eggs for a picnic, I try to set aside a batch to "age" for a week or two. but even then some just don't peel well.
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 31, 2015 12:42:13 GMT -5
Hey nana, so when you put them in water are they submerged or sitting partially above water to steam? I'm happy with a steamer rack if that gives better results. I'm constantly looking for the best way to SB egg. Chuckie post JC's awesome pressure cooker method for hard-boiled eggs a while back, but I've yet to try it. It's guaranteed easy shell-removal. I'll see if I can find the post... it might be on the "other" site. It's buried in this post on the other site. I'll see if I can copy it.... sometimes it doesn't allow me. chambersrangers.proboards.com/thread/3620/hard-boiled-eggs-twellYeah! Success! Our thermowell only holds about 140 degrees. We also get our brown eggs VERY fresh from a friend of ours, and they can be a BEAR to peel after being HB'd.
I have several of Julia Child's cookbooks, and one of the recipes is for "perfect" (I believe it reads) "HB" eggs. You'll have to get your pressure cooker back out, vaporvac! Says you scrub the eggs, and bring the H20 in the pressure cooker to a HARD boil. We also TRY to remember to leave the eggs outta the icebox overnight to get them to room temp, but ALSO let them soak in the HOTTEST hot tap water we can get whilst the H20 comes to the boil--keeps the shells from cracking.
Once the H20 is at a HARD, ROLLING boil, carefully take a slotted spoon and ease the eggs down into the water. Put the rubber in the lid & seal the pressure cooker @ 15#'s pressure. When pressure is achieved, IMMEDIATELY remove from heat, and set Chambers timer for 5 minutes.
After the five minutes, use the "quick release" method for the pressure cooker---run under cold tap water until pressure is released. Put eggs in an ice water bath, but MOST times when you take the lid off the cooker, they are like those plastic Easter eggs--the shells are already HALVED!!!
Also Julia goes on to explain that you NEVER have "blackish" yolks doing them this way when you're trying to make a "presentation"--i.e. deviled eggs, etc.
NOT a "Chambers" innovation, but VERY HANDY TO KNOW when you're wanting HB eggs and are ALWAYS dealing w/farm fresh eggs!!
CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by Chuckie on Aug 31, 2015 18:42:45 GMT -5
Chuckie post JC's awesome pressure cooker method for hard-boiled eggs a while back, but I've yet to try it. It's guaranteed easy shell-removal. I'll see if I can find the post... it might be on the "other" site. It's buried in this post on the other site. I'll see if I can copy it.... sometimes it doesn't allow me. chambersrangers.proboards.com/thread/3620/hard-boiled-eggs-twell How IRONIC that you posted this--we are going to Irish Fest in KC this w/e, and our friends that spend the w/e down there w/us have the free range chicks. They gave us a dozen eggs to pressure cook & take there--those that DO 'pop' outta their shells wind up in a ziplock in the cooler instead of in the egg carton w/the unbroken rest. They are PERFECT for when we go up to the hotel room for lunch (our friends have an adjoining room). We all eat them for breakfast in the morn along w/bagels & cream cheese accompanied by ham (for SOME--veggie Monkey excluded!). We are also to do TWO doz next w/e for ANOTHER friends 60th B-Day. Her bud offered to make deviled eggs IF "you do them the easy-peel way in the pressure cooker, I'll devil them!" LOL, word gets out!
CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by Chuckie on Aug 31, 2015 20:51:45 GMT -5
I'd forgotten about doing them this way and only did it once. My problem is getting them to peel after cooking them and someone told us they'd peel fine if we steamed them instead of boiling in water. It really cooked them nicely but we didn't see an improvement with peeling them. We have chickens and our eggs are really fresh, which makes them tougher to peel. We've tried all kinds of stuff like vinegar, baking soda, different feed ingredients (they free range but also have a feeder in their coop) and a couple of other suggestions and the only thing that we've found that consistently works is to let the eggs come to room temperature before cooking them. Maybe I should try steaming them from room temperature and see how that works. The only eggs we're still having trouble with are the blue eggs from our Ameraucanas - won't peel for anything so they're for stuff like mixes or frying.
We learned this method in Ireland--called "CODDLED" eggs--you use an egg coddler--no matter if the eggs are fresh or not! I'd seen this things before in antique stores, and thought them "fancy jam/jelly jars"--had no CLUE what they were till our trip to "the ould sod"!!
You set the (empty) coddlers in a pan, add water to where it JUST comes up to the bottom of the S.S. (threaded) lid. Remove coddlers, bring said H20 to a HARD, RAPID boil. In the interim, generously butter inside of coddlers, break an egg (or TWO) into coddler--you can also @ this time add bits of ham, cooked bacon, etc to the coddler if you like. We also take care NOT to break the yolk--personal preference (we also don't 'add' anything). When water is @ the aforementioned boil, put the coddlers into the H20. You can cook as long or as short as you like--Monkey likes hers about 5 minutes, I prefer a harder egg--7 to 8--experiment yourselves.
Remove from pan--I use a long-handled wooden spoon, put long end through top, let it slide down to spoon end & lift out. Leave egg in coddler, set on a saucer, & eat w/a spoon like you do a cracked shell of a soft boiled egg, or spoon out over toast (we often eat on toasted Irish soda bread--DELISH!!)
As an aside, best NOT to use the little 'ring' on top to open/close them, was told they could break off. Just grasp the stainless steel lids by the side & unscrew.
CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by nana on Aug 31, 2015 21:23:28 GMT -5
Those are too cute, Chuckie! I would have thought jam or jelly too. The berries on the side are a little misleading...
Anyway, Vaporvac, the eggs can sit in the water, but make sure it is only about a half inch of water so that when you add the cold eggs the water doesn't stop boiling. And make sure the lid keeps enough steam in. The science behind it is that whites start to coagulate at 142 degrees and are solid at 180 deg., while yolks solidify at 158 deg. (I'm totally cribbing this from the magazine!) That is why technique is so important. Putting cold eggs in cold water and then bringing it to a boil gives the heat too much time to penetrate to the yolk. Putting cold eggs into enough boiling water to submerge them, lowers the water temp too much and makes the timing a crapshoot depending on how hot your flame is, how long it takes for the water to return to a boil, how many eggs you're trying to cook, etc. That was always my difficulty, I guess. Too many variables. The steambath stays the same temp throughout, so the timing is the same for any amount of eggs.
FYI, make sure you don't go less than half an inch like I did and the water boiled away about 5 seconds before my time was up and the egg exploded and that nice liquid yolk burned to the bottom of the pot and stank to high heaven. I can't complain about it taking 2 eggs to perfect my technique, though. The Test Kitchen said they went through over 1000 eggs to figure this out. They're such geeks, but their recipes leave nothing to chance.
PS I've always been afraid of pressure cookers. My Mom loved hers. I always had to leave the room when it was jiggling and hissing. It wanted to kill me. Don't try to convince me otherwise!
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Post by Chuckie on Aug 31, 2015 22:23:42 GMT -5
PS I've always been afraid of pressure cookers. My Mom loved hers. I always had to leave the room when it was jiggling and hissing. It wanted to kill me. Don't try to convince me otherwise! LOL, PC's are PRETTY MUCH fail safe--IF you know what you're doing/RESPECT them. Just MAKE SURE the VENT HOLE is unobstructed when you start. Also make sure you have enough liquid in the pan. Lastly, do NOT even ATTEMPT to open the lid till the pressure is reduced. You can do the latter 'naturally'--by allowing it to come down on its own as the pan cools--or else the "immediate" way--ala JC's cookbook--where you run the pan under cold water. When doing the cold water method, it will 'hiss & scream' at you whilst the pressure INSTANTLY reduces under the cold H20. I also go further by using a fork to gently pry up on the pressure weight to insure the pressure has indeed gone down.
One can cook corned beef, dry beans, pulled pork, baked beans*, etc. in 1/4 the time by using the pressure cooker. Again, ALWAYS RESPECT IT, and you'll BOTH enjoy a long & happy life together!!
CHEERS! Chuckie
*(see recipe from "other" Chambers site--dunno WHY it never posted here!!) chambersrangers.proboards.com/thread/3895/pressure-cooker-baked-beans
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Post by vaporvac on Aug 31, 2015 22:50:05 GMT -5
The European and Indian PCs don't even have a weight that can be removed and so are safer. The electric version are even more so... there's one that takes the place of a PC, slow cooker, rice cooker and yogurt maker, as well. My Nordicware microwave pressure cooker is one of my personal favourites... I'm a PC geek with about about five different types and sizes.
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Post by karitx on Aug 31, 2015 23:13:29 GMT -5
I'm with Nana on the murderous pressure cookers. I read about how great they are, then I look at them and all I see is Pennywise the clown in cookware form. I will just have to make sure I plan a long enough time to cook what I need!
As for soft boiled eggs and peeling... I've never tried to peel one. I've always just lopped off the top and eaten it directly from the shell. Am I missing out on something great with peeled soft boiled eggs?
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Post by nana on Sept 1, 2015 18:21:59 GMT -5
I just picture a peeled soft boiled egg popping in your hand like an overripe tomato at the most inopportune time...
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Post by cinnabar on Sept 1, 2015 21:36:53 GMT -5
As for soft boiled eggs and peeling... I've never tried to peel one. I've always just lopped off the top and eaten it directly from the shell. Am I missing out on something great with peeled soft boiled eggs?
I had never heard of the peeling softies either. We always whacked the egg with the edge of the spoon/knife, pull the halves apart, and scoop out the soft insides into a dish. A messy way perhaps, but a family tradition growing up.
My son (the chef) say they peel mass quantities of hard cooked eggs easily under running water at the restaurant. I have found that just wetting the egg before peeling works wonders, as the porous shell needs the moisture to loosen away from the membrane of the egg. If it has dried out in the cooling process this does really work. The stuff we learn on this forum
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Post by mach12 on Sept 1, 2015 22:14:58 GMT -5
I worked with the British Army for awhile and kind of got hooked on soft boiled eggs on toast, which requires peeling them. There are several variations but just eggs, small squares of toast and a bit of butter is pretty good. A little warm milk is really good with it too, especially if the eggs get cooked a bit longer and the yolks start getting solid. Soft boiled eggs eaten the regular way were common too. Those guys were amazing at opening the end of an egg. They had those scissor looking tools with a big loop on one side of the scissors that would sit down on the egg a bit and then they would cut through the shell and take of the end. I did okay at it but can't say I ever mastered it. I did about as well with a plain old egg spoon.
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Post by evangeline on Sept 2, 2015 6:58:22 GMT -5
I admit, I cheat. Bought a set of Lekue silicone egg cups and pfffft., bob's your uncle. You crack in the raw egg, throw in whatever extras, microwave for about a minute. Carefully. Cute little disks and cubes pop out w/ nice soft whites and runny yolks. Like a microwave coddler. Some people are leery of silicone, I should do more research. But the steamer cases come in handy in hot weather and to reheat food.
I like soft boiled. I guess you can nuke 'em for additional 10 seconds and get hardboiled. But they wouldn't work for deviled eggs. Some people have trouble with overcooking. I just watch through the window and grab them when they look about right.
Feels funny typing the word microwave on cooking forums!
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 2, 2015 11:24:38 GMT -5
I have a microwave soft-boiler which essentially steams them. It's egg-shaped with an insert and works pretty well. I also have one for a single egg. Growing up we had the stove-top poacher that sounds similar in design to yours, evangeline, except the eggs sit over water. Does anyone remember them? I see them from time to time thrifting. My BF grew up with the Sunbeam timed poacher and still goes on about its virtues. Wish I could get my hands on one...someday. It's amazing the contraptions just to get a good soft-boiled egg!
I use the micro a lot in the summer to cook. I always feel I'm probably the only person that actually cooks in it as opposed to just heating things up.
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Post by evangeline on Sept 2, 2015 18:46:07 GMT -5
Vaporvac, funny you should mention the Sunbeam poacher. Perfect Spouse has a poaching gizmo. . . it got moved to 'Housewares' (third floor = the Arctic Circle of Storage) & now I'm going up there to check it out. I think it was more Breville than Sunbeam.
Truth is, I steam in the microwave a lot. Boiling water with gas is kind of a waste, innit? I bought a lekue rice cooker, it's supposed to work with grains as well. Going to compare it to the thermowell this fall, will report back.
The whole egg thing. Do you browse Chow? The fireworks over the best equipment to cook eggs, sheesh. Blood is spilled.
PS MACH12: credit the Brits with a special egg guillotine. Now I have to google. Mrs. Patmore didn't have one, did she???
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Post by nana on Sept 2, 2015 19:47:54 GMT -5
I have one of those stove top poachers and use it fairly often. The eggs from it are good, but have a slightly different feel to them than a soft boiled egg. It's good when you want to top a salad or hash with an egg. Our family method was always to tap the rounder end of the egg gently with the spoon, peel off enough shell to be able to fit the spoon in and scoop, eating it either bite by bite straight from the shell, or scooping into a little dish with some butter.
As for peeling hard boiled eggs, my mom could peel the most reluctant eggs by gently rolling the egg on the counter just enough to crackle the shell all over, peeling just a tiny bit off the round end, then putting her mouth over the hole and blowing air between the shell and the egg white. She could pop a perfect smooth egg out and the shell would still be mostly in one piece, held together by the inner membrane. I can do it once in a while, but mostly I seem to do it wrong and the pressure does funny things to my ears, like blowing up a difficult balloon. She passed away 2 years ago this month and not a day goes by where I don't have some question I know she would have been able to answer about cooking or gardening. I learned a lot from her, but there was so much more that went with her...
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Post by mach12 on Sept 2, 2015 20:36:35 GMT -5
PS MACH12: credit the Brits with a special egg guillotine. Now I have to google. Mrs. Patmore didn't have one, did she??? I did a quick search and found a picture of a similar scissor using the term "egg topper scissors". This one is a bit fancier and is decorated with a chicken but is otherwise the same.
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Post by Chuckie on Sept 2, 2015 21:12:28 GMT -5
Truth is, I steam in the microwave a lot. Boiling water with gas is kind of a waste, innit? I bought a lekue rice cooker, it's supposed to work with grains as well. Going to compare it to the thermowell this fall, will report back. My Veggie Monkey has ALWAYS been a big rice eater--had all the various & sundry rice cooking contraptions. She said NOTHING cooks rice like the thermowell!!! From our perspective, we ALWAYS go L-I-T-E on H20--as in like maybe 7/8th of a cup of water when you measure it out. NOT like 3/4 cup or anything, just "light".... CHEERS! Chuckie
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Post by evangeline on Sept 3, 2015 19:30:49 GMT -5
People! Who KNEW egg scissors could be so very . . . .cunning!! Chuckie, thank Monkey for the rice tip. I am sick of dry rice, rice that sticks on the bottom, rice that blows apart, rice that turns into goo.
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Post by chipperhiker on Sept 4, 2015 11:34:49 GMT -5
Does anyone else use an old-school egg cooker? I have a Hankscraft version from the late 50s/early 60s that makes 6 perfectly boiled eggs at a time (to be specific, they're actually steamed). The older Hankscraft versions make fewer eggs, but work the same way, and there are other brands, as well. You adjust the length of cooking time by adjusting the volume of water you add to the cooker, so you can get hard or soft-boiled eggs really consistently. It shuts off automatically, and there is no sulfur rim on the yolks (that dark layer on the outside.)
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 4, 2015 13:05:59 GMT -5
That Hanscraft looks really similar to the Sunbeam one I mentioned above. I guess I need to looks harder for one as everyone sings their praises.
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Post by chipperhiker on Sept 4, 2015 23:05:46 GMT -5
They're worth the search. : )
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Post by chipperhiker on Sept 4, 2015 23:08:14 GMT -5
I forgot to mention that I poke a hole in the large end of the egg (the part that contains the air cell). It prevents the occasional "blowout" event.
Hankscraft doesn't say to do it, but the old Sunbeam egg cookers actually have a little sharp point in their lids with which to puncture the eggs. I just use a pin and that works fine.
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Post by mach12 on Sept 12, 2015 20:35:03 GMT -5
I came across this egg cooker that you're supposed to put the egg in the tray part, set it in a pan and then fill with water up to the level on the cooker to get the type of boiled egg you want. When the eggs are finished it's supposed to whistle. Has anyone ever used one of these? I've seen them before but the thrift shop it was in was almost giving it away so I figured it might be worth playing with.
I grabbed this picture off of the internet but it's identical.
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 12, 2015 22:25:33 GMT -5
I think I need one of those... anything that whistles as I get distracted easily!
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Post by chipperhiker on Sept 12, 2015 23:18:27 GMT -5
Well, that is a cool looking little gizmo, mach12. Please let us know how it performs.
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Post by cinnabar on Sept 13, 2015 8:12:54 GMT -5
That is cool, I will have to look for one now.
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Post by nana on Sept 13, 2015 9:13:58 GMT -5
That is the coolest thing! I want one too!
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Post by vaporvac on Sept 13, 2015 14:14:56 GMT -5
Nana, back to your original post: when using the steamer are these eggs touching the water at all or are they sitting above it and cooked by the steam? This is a hot topic this pm.
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