You need to learn your stove ultimately. Any recipe that says “cook eggs for x minutes for perfect eggs every time” is full of shit because there will be variance
Exceptions: if you cook them in constantly boiling water which is obviously 212F the whole time. This is a nightmare though and will often crack your eggs before they finish. So most normal people turn the heat down a bit once eggs are added, thus variance. Alternative sous vide, which does make repeatable eggs, but sous vide eggs tend to have realllllly loose whites. That’s fine for some things but if I want a proper boiled egg, like for ramen, it sucks. You can blanch them for like 30-60 seconds to set the whites but if I’m going to boil a pot of water anyway I might as well just make eggs the normal way
My egg prep: boil water, add 6 cold eggs, turn heat to 5, time 6 minutes for runny yolk, 6:45ish for gelled ramen egg yolk, 8m for fully set. Once timer is done immediately put into ice bath and let sit in ice bath for at least 15 minutes or so (will be hard to peel if you don’t let cool fully)
I have a shitty cheap electric cooktop though. When I was at my parents house I used their gas stove which puts out serious heat with the same method. Even cutting the time by 1m they were overcooked. You have to adjust to your surface
so if you try and sous vide to get the yolks just so, then the whites are usually undercooked? seems like alternative would be using a lot of water to act as enough of a heat sink to get repeatable simmering temp but that wastes a lot of energy
I cook my eggs in steam.
I put half an inch of water into a small pot, bring it to a rolling boil, add the eggs and put the lid back on. Works every time, on any stove.
You need to learn your stove ultimately. Any recipe that says “cook eggs for x minutes for perfect eggs every time” is full of shit because there will be variance
Exceptions: if you cook them in constantly boiling water which is obviously 212F the whole time. This is a nightmare though and will often crack your eggs before they finish. So most normal people turn the heat down a bit once eggs are added, thus variance. Alternative sous vide, which does make repeatable eggs, but sous vide eggs tend to have realllllly loose whites. That’s fine for some things but if I want a proper boiled egg, like for ramen, it sucks. You can blanch them for like 30-60 seconds to set the whites but if I’m going to boil a pot of water anyway I might as well just make eggs the normal way
My egg prep: boil water, add 6 cold eggs, turn heat to 5, time 6 minutes for runny yolk, 6:45ish for gelled ramen egg yolk, 8m for fully set. Once timer is done immediately put into ice bath and let sit in ice bath for at least 15 minutes or so (will be hard to peel if you don’t let cool fully)
I have a shitty cheap electric cooktop though. When I was at my parents house I used their gas stove which puts out serious heat with the same method. Even cutting the time by 1m they were overcooked. You have to adjust to your surface
so if you try and sous vide to get the yolks just so, then the whites are usually undercooked? seems like alternative would be using a lot of water to act as enough of a heat sink to get repeatable simmering temp but that wastes a lot of energy
I cook my eggs in steam.
I put half an inch of water into a small pot, bring it to a rolling boil, add the eggs and put the lid back on. Works every time, on any stove.
I haven’t experimented with steam but I’ve heard it works great. How long do you cook them? I would love to make rice cooker eggs
5 minutes cause I like a runny yolk.
8 would be just hard boiled.