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Tips and Instructions on How to Cook Eggs Properly

Lots of tips and tricks for cooking eggs properly with instructions for cooking perfect eggs. All household tips for Boiling eggs with tricks for hard and soft eggs. With fresh eggs test.

Household tips for boiling eggs

So you have perfect breakfast eggs and know the tricks for optimal cooking times for an ideal boiled egg. Also, note the tips for storing eggs and preserving eggs.

  • Marking with a pen helps to distinguish between boiled eggs and fresh eggs in the refrigerator. All boiled eggs get a black dot on the egg.
  • Quenching the eggs in cold water immediately after cooking will prevent the yolk from turning green.
  • Use up and boil older eggs first. The older the eggs, the more important it is to quench them in cold water.
  • Don’t boil eggs for too long and don’t boil over 90°C, otherwise, the iron in the yolk and sulfur in the egg white will start to dissolve, and then this greenish edge will appear on the hard yolk.
  • You can also reuse the eggshells very well as organic fertilizer for the flowers and plants in the household.

Instructions for cooking eggs

For the perfectly boiled breakfast egg, we have collected the most important points in instructions for boiling eggs: Ideally, use room temperature eggs for cooking. If you get the eggs fresh from the fridge you have to add that to the cooking time. The boiling water in the pot should be high enough to completely cover each egg. Alternatively, you can also cook the eggs in steam, but then you need a lid on the top. you have to be careful that not too much water evaporates before the eggs are ready according to the cooking time.

Optimal cooking times for eggs

For an ideal boiled egg, a distinction is made between soft, waxy, and hard eggs. Do not cook the eggs too long or too hot, as the eggs usually continue to cook. The following cooking times apply to eggs in already boiling water. If you boil an egg in cold water, just add 2 minutes.

Always carefully put the eggs in the pot

When the water boils, carefully place the egg in the saucepan with a spoon. After boiling, use the same spoon to fish the eggs out of the water again. Then rinse under the tap with cold water until you feel a cool peel. Quenching prevents further cooking, especially with soft eggs. If you leave soft eggs alone, the yolk will continue to set.

What to do if eggs burst

When eggs burst, the temperature difference between egg and water is too high. In these cases, take the eggs out of the fridge early so that they can warm up to room temperature. Or preheat under lukewarm water beforehand. Vinegar and salt in the cooking water will help coagulate. Then at least burst eggs will not appear. So just add vinegar or salt to the water.

The fresh egg test

You can test whether eggs are fresh by looking at the raw egg from the outside or by breaking it open and analyzing the egg contents. With broken eggs, you can test and identify fresh eggs as follows:

  • Fresh eggs have the yolk in the middle of the albumen. The thick egg white forms a kind of ring around the bulging yolk. In old eggs, the albumen liquefies, and the yolk shifts to the edge or becomes flatter or wider.
  • If the chicken feed contains a lot of corn, the egg loses its tension and becomes runny. On hot days, the animals drink a lot of water. As a result, the eggs lose their consistency and also become thinner.

Test fresh eggs with the egg closed

  • The swim test involves placing the whole egg in cold water. If the egg is fresh, it stays on the ground.
  • In the shake test, you hear a gurgling noise when you shake the egg. Then the egg is no longer fresh.
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Quenching Eggs: Helpful or Superfluous?

quench eggs or not? Is it useful or maybe even harmful? Here you can find out when you should quench eggs and when it is better not to.

Are quenched eggs easier to peel?

A common household tip is that chilled eggs are easier to peel. When the breakfast egg is cooked to the desired consistency, you should dip (or pour over) the hot egg in cold water, which should allow the shell to separate easily.

If the eggs are very fresh, certain proteins on the inner skin hold the albumen and the shell together – fresh eggs are therefore more difficult to peel. The older the egg is, the higher the pH value in the egg white rises. The thin skin around the egg white then becomes more elastic. This makes it easier to peel boiled eggs.

Only the age of the eggs determines whether the shell can be easily peeled off together with the skin. It is therefore superfluous to quench the eggs in order to be able to peel them better.

Quench eggs: what’s the point?

Deterring eggs can still be useful for the following reasons:
If you like to eat a soft or waxy breakfast egg, you interrupt the cooking process of the eggs with the cold water and they keep the desired consistency. If you don’t submerge the eggs in cold water after cooking, they will continue to cook under the hot shell.
Especially with hard-boiled Easter eggs, the edge of the yolk often turns grey-brown. You can prevent this by taking a cold water shower.

Can deterring eggs be dangerous?

If you want to keep boiled eggs in the fridge for a long time, you should not put them off as there is an increased risk that the eggs will be more quickly infested with germs due to the brittle shell.
Even undamaged eggs should not be stored in the refrigerator for longer than four weeks after cooking.
Putting off a breakfast egg that you want to eat the same day is completely unproblematic. If you want to peel the egg, it is best to reach for the eggs that have been in the fridge for a while.

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Separate Eggs: 3 Simple Tricks

Separating eggs is sometimes necessary when preparing pastries, desserts, or sauces. It’s not difficult with a variety of techniques – we’ll also show you how recipes can be made without eggs.

Some recipes require the egg white and yolk to be separated. You don’t need any tools to separate eggs. The yolk has a relatively stable shell. Nevertheless, it can sometimes happen that this shell tears and the yolk flows into the albumen.

If you need to separate multiple eggs, do it one at a time, separating the eggs over a cup and placing the two components in two more bowls. If an egg yolk runs out, only one egg is mixed and you can use the remaining eggs for the recipe.

When the yolk runs into the egg white, it becomes difficult to whip the egg whites out of it. You can then simply use it for other dishes, such as omelets or pancakes. You can also prepare other things with leftover egg whites or use the yolks for other purposes.

Separate eggs without tools

You can separate egg yolks from egg whites using a variety of techniques without tools. Set out bowls ahead of time to collect the whites and yolks separately.

Use the eggshell to separate the egg:
Prepare a bowl. Crack the egg on the edge of the bowl. You now have two egg halves, one of which contains only egg white.
Add the egg whites from this half to the bowl.
Carefully pour the yolk from one half of the egg to the other, allowing the egg white to run over the edge of the shell and into the bowl. Shake the egg back and forth until only the yolk is left in an eggshell.

Use your hand to separate the egg:
Form a bowl with your hand, leaving small gaps between your fingers.
Crack the egg open on a hard edge and pour the egg into your hand over a bowl.
Run the egg white between your fingers into the bowl, catching the yolk.

Separate eggs with tools

A tool for separating eggs is particularly useful if the egg is already open in a bowl. There are various jugs and coarse sieves to separate the egg white and yolk.

With a suction effect, you pull the yolk out of the egg white with special rubber figures. You most likely don’t need such a special utensil, because you can achieve the same effect with an empty plastic bottle:
Squeeze the bottle with your hand, holding the opening close to the yolk.
release the pressure The resulting negative pressure pulls the yolk into the bottle.

replace egg white

When egg white is called for in a recipe, it is often made into whipped cream. There are many reasons you might want to substitute egg whites: if you’re intolerant to eggs, if you’re refusing eggs for ethical reasons, or simply because you don’t have enough eggs on hand

Since raw eggs can contain salmonella, you can substitute them, especially in dishes with uncooked eggs. You can easily replace egg whites with the water in which the chickpeas were boiled. This is called aquafaba. You can process this with just a few ingredients into a vegan egg white. Silken tofu is a good basis for mousse au chocolat instead of egg.

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6 Reasons Why You Should Avoid Quail Eggs

The small speckled eggs are trendy and are often advertised as superfood. However, the truth behind the quail eggs looks murky. We explain why you should stay away from quail eggs and quail meat.

Quails are the smallest of all gallinaceous birds, their eggs weigh just ten to twelve grams. The pretty mini-sized eggs can be prepared like chicken eggs, but their taste is a bit more intense.

Both the eggs and the quail meat are becoming increasingly popular. While quail eggs used to only be an exclusive delicacy in delicatessens, eggs have now become something of a trend food item and are available in almost every supermarket and discounter. They are often referred to as superfood, as they contain many minerals, trace elements and vitamins.

Here’s what you should know about quail eggs

However, many people do not realize how sad the circumstances are under which the birds eke out their existence.

1. There is no cage ban when keeping quail

Actually hard to believe: What is forbidden for laying hens and broilers is allowed for quail. In the EU there is neither a cage ban nor far-reaching regulations for keeping quail. 143 million quail are said to be kept in unstructured cages in the EU.

There they live crammed together in a very small space and can hardly stand up. Behavioral disorders and injuries are the order of the day, according to the German Animal Welfare Office.

In addition to cages, Soko Tierschutz also criticizes the way fattened quails are kept on the ground, which shows that this form of husbandry is just as cruel as keeping them in cages: “More than 100,000 quails are usually kept in a hall, painfully cramped, only artificial light, that too burns in the night, no chance for weak animals.”

In the wild, quail spend much of the day on the move: walking, running, flying, pecking for food and bathing in the sand.

No labeling of quail eggs

The EU marketing standard for chicken eggs is not mandatory for quail eggs. In the past, quail eggs were often found to be incorrectly labeled: the packs said “barn farming”, but the eggs came from cage farming. “Even the term ‘free range’ is not necessarily comparable to free-range chickens,” explains the German Animal Welfare Association.

Quail eggs come from factory farming

Like laying hens, quail are bred on a large scale – and the market for the small eggs is anything but small: in Germany alone, more than 40 million quail eggs are consumed every year. Most of them come from cage batteries.

High performance breeding in quail

High-performance breeding also entails animal welfare problems, explains the German Animal Welfare Association: “While wild quail only lay ten to 15 eggs a year, hens of the specially bred laying line ‘produce’ almost 200 eggs during their short ‘useful life’ of a maximum of 38 weeks before they be slaughtered.”

This abnormal laying performance means that the birds often suffer from peritonitis and inflammation of the fallopian tubes.

Little egg for much animal suffering

Animal suffering cannot be offset. But since the small quail eggs weigh just over ten grams, the animal suffering from quail eggs is disproportionately high compared to chicken eggs (50 to 60 grams). At least if you want to get full from the eggs.

Quail eggs travel far

Quail eggs are still often not from Germany – about half of the eggs are imported from abroad. This makes the keeping conditions even less comprehensible. In addition, there are long distances that pollute the climate.

Utopia advises: Quail eggs are another example of the fact that the consumption of animal products is often associated with a great deal of misery and suffering for the animals. Even with laying hens, conventional husbandry is cruel, with quail it is even more torture.

The Albert Schweitzer Foundation warns that organic quail eggs are not automatically a good solution either. Here, too, the animals live and die “often under poor conditions”. Quail farming is still miles away from initiatives such as dual-purpose chickens and brother roosters for more compatible chicken farming. Therefore, our tip here is very clear: It is best to avoid quail eggs altogether!

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Are Eggs Healthy? Nutritional Values and Important Information

Whether or not eggs can be considered healthy seems to be a controversial topic in research as well. Learn more about the nutrients, cholesterol levels and sustainability of eggs here.

On the one hand, eggs have the reputation of being healthy: they are supposed to promote our health due to their nutrient density and above all their protein content and support growth in children. In the form of scrambled eggs, omelettes or simply as a breakfast egg, they are also a traditional food for many. However, due to their high cholesterol content, eggs are often discredited. In this article we explain what this criticism is all about and to what extent it is based on scientific knowledge.

Eggs – Healthy Nutrient Bombs?

Eggs are primarily considered a low-carbohydrate source of protein. A medium-sized egg provides you with about 5.5 grams of protein at 62 kilocalories. It also contains about 4.2 grams of fat. Of that, 1.4 grams are saturated fat.

In addition, eggs are rich in healthy minerals such as calcium, iron and selenium as well as vitamins A, D and E and some B vitamins (especially vitamin B12). This makes them an important source of B12, especially for vegetarians.

But eggs are not only considered healthy: their comparatively high cholesterol content is responsible for their reputation as a health threat. An egg yolk already contains 185 milligrams of cholesterol. According to the 2015 US dietary guidelines, this is already more than half the recommended daily dose. This recommendation no longer applies, but you should continue to eat as little cholesterol as possible.

Eggs – Unhealthy due to cholesterol?

Cholesterol belongs to the group of fats. As such, it is an essential part of our body. It is part of cell walls, involved in hormone production and helps the body to produce vitamin D and cortisone. We absorb a third of all cholesterol from food. Cholesterol is not bad per se. It is important that there is a balance between the two types of cholesterol, LDL and HDL. There is only a need for action when this balance is upset.

The fact that eggs are generally unhealthy because their high cholesterol content promotes arteriosclerosis and thus cardiovascular diseases is now also considered outdated in research. No study can prove a clear connection between the consumption of eggs and an increased risk of heart disease.

According to Harvard Medical School, it’s probably more about how much total cholesterol you’re eating. Meat products in particular make up a large proportion of cholesterol sources.

According to the BBC, the connection between dietary cholesterol and cardiovascular disease must be questioned in general, as no study has been able to adequately prove it. Rather, there is evidence that the body simply produces less cholesterol itself when we consume more through food. In addition, trans fats in particular are responsible for an increased LDL cholesterol level and thus an imbalance. Trans fats are mostly found in products like margarine and fried and baked convenience foods.

How many eggs a day?

What do these studies and nutritional discussions mean specifically for our diet? First of all, as is so often the case: the dose makes the poison. Eggs are healthy if we eat them occasionally as part of a balanced diet. There is no uniform recommendation as to how many eggs are recommended per day or week. For example, according to Harvard Medical School, up to seven eggs a week are considered safe.

To protect yourself from arteriosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases, you can make sure you eat a diet rich in plants. Also, avoid processed foods and mostly cook yourself with fresh and wholesome ingredients.

You should only keep a closer eye on your egg consumption if you are already suffering from other health problems (e.g. high blood pressure) or if you have already been diagnosed with high cholesterol. In these cases, it is essential to seek medical advice for a possible change in diet.

Tips for sustainable eggs

While eggs are healthy, not all eggs are created equal. Conventional products from cage or barn systems usually come from huge fattening facilities. Laying hens are crammed together in the smallest of spaces and their basic needs are restricted. Diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi are also transmitted particularly easily in this way.

A key problem in egg production is chick shredding: Many farms kill male chicks after hatching by gassing or shredding as there is no economic return from them. This is also partly the case with organic farms.

However, there are now initiatives against chick shredding (e.g. Spitz & Bube or Bruderhahn). These initiatives are committed to rearing the male chicks. Products with their logo, you can be sure that they are eggs without chick shredding.

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Ei like: Dye Easter Eggs Naturally!

What would Easter be without brightly colored Easter eggs? For hundreds of years, we have had the custom of dyeing Easter eggs, often during Holy Week around Maundy Thursday. But chemicals don’t always have to be used for dyeing. Rather, the typical egg colors should even be dispensed with, as can be seen from a current Greenpeace market check. More than half of all Easter egg dyes tested in March 2021 contained substances that were harmful to health, such as azo dyes. These are suspected of triggering allergies and promoting asthma.

Dye Easter eggs naturally

But don’t worry: you can also use natural products from local kitchens to make beautiful eggs for Easter baskets, and the colors are guaranteed to be harmless. A classic from the range of natural Easter egg colors is red onion skins. But even if the eggs are colored with turmeric, beetroot, or tea, for example, the results are impressive. And another big plus of natural colors: You don’t have to worry about the color seeping through the shell, because the eggs can be enjoyed by children and adults without hesitation.

How it works

Make dye broth

Depending on the number of eggs you want to dye, first, make a dye stock. To do this, boil 500 ml to 1 l of water and add the coloring products, let the brew steep for at least 15 minutes. Basically, the brew becomes stronger the longer you let it steep. Pay attention to your starting material: turmeric powder, for example, is already very fine and releases its color relatively quickly into the water. Whole sprigs of nettle will take longer to do this, of course, but you can cut them into small pieces to speed up the color extraction.

Boil eggs

You can boil the eggs while the dye brew is brewing. First, clean the eggs well, rub with vinegar, and hard boil as normal. In this way, the subsequent dyeing time can be controlled independently of the hard boil. Also, hard-boiled eggs are easier to decorate. It is best to dye the Easter eggs immediately after hard-boiling because they take on the color better when they are still warm.

Dye Easter eggs naturally

As already mentioned, the still-warm eggs are placed in the warm dye broth. They stay there for at least 15 minutes. The exact duration depends on the egg color, but also on what natural materials you are coloring with. Some stain much faster and more intensely than others. Since the eggs are already cooked any way, you can leave them in the broth until the desired result is achieved. It is best to rub the finished eggs with a drop of oil to give them a nice shine.

Decorate Easter eggs

Just brightly colored is not enough for you? Then you can provide the Easter eggs with different patterns. One option is to draw patterns on the boiled eggs with beeswax before coloring them. In these places, they do not take on any color. You can also put leaves and grass or a piece of decorative ribbon or lace on top of the eggs and tie a piece of pantyhose tightly over them. This is how the pattern is transferred to the eggs. When choosing the grass, you should note that thicker leaves and stems leave stronger light spots than very delicate leaves such as yarrow.

Natural coloring agents

What now colors how? Red eggs produce beetroot (divide a beetroot into pieces and let it soak in the broth) or red onion skins (at least a handful, the shells can also be soaked in the broth overnight – depending on the color of the eggs you get rich, dark red-brown eggs this way). Blueberries or elderberries (frozen) or red cabbage produces purple to bluish eggs. Turmeric, carrots, or chamomile flowers dye eggs yellow – but these dyes only work on white eggs, brown ones are too dark. You can get green eggs by using crushed nettles, spinach, or mate tea. Black tea, coffee, or regular brown onion peel will turn eggs brown.

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Warming Up Scrambled Eggs: What You Should Consider

You can reheat leftover scrambled eggs to avoid wasting food. Here you can find out what you should definitely pay attention to.

Warm up scrambled eggs: yes or no? It is often not recommended to reheat scrambled eggs. This is due to the fact that if stored improperly, harmful salmonella, for example, can multiply in the egg. In addition, the protein structure of the egg can change – if you have a sensitive stomach, this quickly leads to nausea or diarrhea.

However, if you follow certain instructions, there is nothing wrong with reheating leftover scrambled eggs. Basically, however, it is advisable to eat scrambled eggs only freshly prepared.

Important: When buying eggs, always pay attention to organic quality. You can support more species-appropriate animal husbandry. However, an organic seal does not automatically guarantee that the male chicks will also be reared. You can find out in which supermarkets you can find eggs without shredding chicks in our guide.

The right storage

So that you can still enjoy your scrambled eggs the following day without hesitation, you should first make sure that they are stored correctly. These rules apply:

Pack leftover scrambled eggs into a clean, airtight container as soon as possible after making them.
Place the container in the refrigerator immediately, even if the egg is still slightly warm.
The scrambled eggs keep refrigerated throughout for about 24 to a maximum of 30 hours.

Warming up scrambled eggs: This is how it works

When reheating scrambled eggs, keep the following tips in mind:

You can reheat scrambled eggs in the microwave, oven, or pan. In the microwave and oven, however, it can happen that the scrambled eggs become quite dry.
The best method is to re-fry leftover scrambled eggs in a pan with a little oil.
With all methods, you should make sure that you heat the scrambled eggs to at least 70 degrees for at least ten minutes. You can tell by the fact that it is evenly hot after warming up and not just lukewarm.

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Freezing Eggs: When Does It Make Sense?

You can freeze raw eggs and store them for up to ten months. If you have leftover egg yolks or whites after baking, you can freeze them too. However, to ensure that nothing goes wrong, you should pay attention to a few things.

Freezing eggs: In these cases it is worth it

You don’t have to freeze eggs to keep them for a long time: raw eggs can be kept in the refrigerator for at least four weeks – provided the shell is undamaged. Hard-boiled eggs will also keep for up to four weeks at a cool temperature. Therefore, in most cases it is not necessary to freeze eggs. Tip: You can use the water test to check whether the egg is still good after the best-before date has passed.

An exception is if you have a lot of eggs in stock or are going on vacation for a few weeks. Then it can make sense to store the eggs in the freezer.

You can also freeze egg yolks or egg whites if you only need part of the egg in a baking recipe. Raw egg yolks and whites would only keep for three days in the refrigerator, but a few months in the freezer.

By the way: When it comes to animal products, organic quality is particularly important. Therefore only buy organic eggs (code 0) – preferably those with additional certification from a nature association such as Bioland, Demeter or Naturland. Also, make sure there is no chick shredding.

Never freeze eggs in shell or cooked

However, freezing eggs can also go wrong. Be sure to note the following points:

Raw eggs in shell: If you put uncooked eggs whole in shell in the freezer, the yolk will expand and the shell will burst. The result: the eggs spread out in the freezer and freeze solid there. A big mess and waste of precious food.
Boiled eggs: In principle, hard-boiled eggs can be frozen. However, the result leaves a lot to be desired: The hard-boiled egg white changes its consistency, becomes rubbery and has a watery taste.

Freezing eggs: step-by-step instructions

If you keep the above points in mind, you can freeze eggs quite easily. The best way to do this is as follows:

If you want to freeze a whole raw egg, you should whisk it well first. Alternatively, you can freeze the egg yolk and egg white separately.
Place the egg in a clean freezer-safe container. Tip: Glass containers are more sustainable than plastic containers. Leave about a quarter of the container empty to avoid bursting in the freezer.
Label the containers with the current date and the number of eggs. This way you will know later when baking and cooking how many eggs, egg yolks, or proteins you have in front of you.
Freezing eggs as ice cubes: If you want to use the frozen eggs in small quantities, you can also freeze them in an ice cube tray and then put them in a freezer bag.

Shelf Life: Whole eggs will keep in the freezer for around eight to ten months. Frozen egg whites will keep for up to 12 months. Nevertheless, you should not store the eggs for too long: the longer they are in the freezer, the more they lose their taste.

Thawing: Frozen eggs should be thawed slowly in the refrigerator. Depending on the quantity, this takes half a day to a whole day. It goes a little faster if you put the container with the frozen eggs in a cold water bath. Under no circumstances should you thaw the eggs at room temperature or under heat.

Use: If the eggs or egg yolks or egg whites are completely thawed, you can continue to use them as usual. Don’t eat frozen eggs raw. Therefore: Heat properly before consumption!

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Eggs and Their Shelf Life: You Should Know That

The shelf life of eggs depends on various factors. Here’s how long to store eggs and how to preserve them.

Raw Eggs: This is their shelf life

Eggs can be kept unrefrigerated for about 20 days from the laying date. Their shell protects them from germs. If you want to store them longer, you have to keep them in the fridge.

If you want to know how long the eggs you have bought will keep, you can always use the best before date printed on the egg code on the egg carton. According to the Federal Center for Nutrition, the best before date is 28 days after the laying date. The egg cartons usually also state when you should start refrigerating the eggs.

If the best-before date has passed, you don’t have to throw the eggs away right away. Instead, you can easily find out if the eggs are still good with the egg test. To be on the safe side, the AFCN recommends always cooking the eggs at at least 70 degrees if the best-before date has already passed. This kills any salmonella and other pathogens.

In order for eggs to last as long as possible, you should always store them in a clean and dry environment. If you find eggs with damaged shells in your egg carton, you should use them the same day and cook them well. You should also cook eggs that have feces or feathers on them as quickly as possible and store them separately from the other eggs.

Food that contains raw eggs should always be kept in the refrigerator and consumed within a day.
You can store raw egg yolks and egg whites in the refrigerator in a clean, sealed container for 2-3 days.
By the way: Where your eggs come from usually has no influence on their shelf life. In any case, you should pay attention to this. It is best to buy organic eggs that, in addition to the EU organic seal, also carry the seal of an organic association such as Naturland. This is how you support species-appropriate animal husbandry. In the meantime, you can also find eggs in many shops from farms where the male chicks are not shredded, but also reared.

Extend the shelf life of eggs: This is how you can preserve eggs

There are several ways you can extend the shelf life of your eggs past the best before date:

Freezing: You can freeze the yolk and egg white separately in airtight containers. According to AFCN, egg yolk keeps in the freezer at minus 18 degrees for six to ten months, egg white even for up to 12 months.
Hard-boiling: Hard-boiled eggs will keep in the refrigerator for several weeks. In order to keep them as long as possible, you should not put off the eggs after cooking. Rinsing the eggs in cold water while they are still hot can cause fine cracks to form in the shell, allowing bacteria and germs to get into the eggs. That’s why the consumer advice center recommends refrigerating quenched eggs and using them within two weeks. If you haven’t quenched the eggs, they will keep for at least four weeks in the refrigerator. By the way: coloring for Easter does not affect the shelf life of eggs.
Pickling: For centuries, people have been preserving eggs by pickling hard-boiled eggs with their shells in brine. Since brine is also known as brine, eggs preserved in this way are called brine eggs. Brine eggs can be kept for about two weeks, but become saltier over time.

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Boiling Eggs: That’s How Long the Hard and Soft Egg Takes

Boiling eggs could be so easy. But it’s not – sometimes it’s too soft, sometimes too hard, sometimes it bursts when cooking. Find out here how long it takes to cook the perfect egg.

It doesn’t matter whether you prefer a hard-boiled or a soft-boiled egg for breakfast – it is important to buy organic eggs to save the chickens unnecessary suffering. When you boil your egg, there are only two things you need to keep in mind to get the result you want: the size of the egg and the cooking time.

Soft or hard-boiled eggs: rule of thumb for cooking eggs

Before you get started, you should check the size of your egg. The cooking time varies depending on the size. There are the egg sizes S, M, L, and XL – they are noted on the egg carton.

Basically, you cook the eggs like this: just put them in boiling water and rinse them with cold water after the cooking time. For M eggs one can roughly say:

Four minutes: The egg white is set, but the yolk is still very runny – a perfect breakfast egg.
Seven minutes: the yolk is soft as wax – now you have a snack egg.
Eleven minutes: The yolk is hard and cutable – a typical hard-boiled egg.
If you are using S eggs you will need to cook them about 30 seconds less, for L eggs 30 seconds more.

Cooking eggs: It depends on the temperature

It would be nice if you could simply specify a number of minutes after which an egg is hard- or soft-boiled. But it’s not really about the cooking time, but about the temperature that the inside of the egg has to reach for the respective texture. And the “internal temperature” depends on three factors:

The size of the eggs – an XL egg takes longer to hatch than an S egg.
The temperature of the eggs – did you just get them out of the fridge or have they been out for a while? They take up to a minute longer from the fridge.
The temperature of the cooking water – most of us cook the eggs in bubbling boiling water. It’s about 100 degrees warm by the sea, but only 90 degrees on the Zugspitze. The higher your location, the longer the egg has to cook.
In fact, the egg white becomes solid at 62 degrees. The yolk is already no longer liquid at 63 degrees – so a solid egg white with a liquid yolk is not so easy to find! At around 66 degrees Celsius, the egg yolk is soft as wax, and at 70 degrees it is hard and cut-resistant.

For example, if you want a perfect egg, you could cook the egg at 66 degrees for hours and still end up with a waxy egg. However, most kitchen appliances are not that accurate in practice.

Cooking eggs

Are you unsure if your egg is still good? Then don’t just throw it away, but find out with the egg test. Because many eggs have a longer shelf life than the best-before date promises.

Eating fewer eggs overall is even better. You can also use vegan egg substitutes for many recipes – just give it a try!

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