Hard Boiled Eggs

[Miss J]

After this period the eggs develop all sorts of amazingly complex and tasty flavours.

But would the texture be changed?

Gah.

[Schielke]

Cookin Eggs

[hedgehog]

"And new-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care

Turn'd by a gentle fire and roasted rare"

---Ovid, Metamorphoses

THis is a truly ancient Mediterranean dish: eggs roasted in the ashes of a dying fire, absorbing an exquisite smoky flavor while attaining a silk-and-satin texture.

In Morocco eggs are cooked in a sabbath stew overnight. The yolks are creamy and delicious; the whites are firm and take on the aroma of the stew. They are not rubbery. You only get this effect if the stew is cooked at a low temperature. In effect,coddling the eggs.

[Adam Balic]

After this period the eggs develop all sorts of amazingly complex and tasty flavours.

But would the texture be changed?

Gah.

Apparently not. Thank you Hedgehog. I shall try this out, although I do wonder how I am going to explain to my wife that I need the oven left on over night to cook some eggs.

[=Mark]

I start on the highest heat of my stove and, once they reach a rolling boil, I drop down to a super-low simmer and start the timer for 10 minutes. (You cook at a simmer so the yolks don't develop that greenish coating, which is caused by higher temperatures.)

It's my understanding that simmering water and boiling water are the same temperature 212 F. At a rolling boil you are vaporizing more water but the temp stays the same...

[hedgehog]

Adam: do you have a crockpot?

Here is something I do to simulate the eggs served in Egyptian breakfast cafes. They crumble the overnight cooked eggs over a plate of simmered dried favas.

Place the dry eggs in an empty

earthenware slow cooker. Cover and turn the heat to LOW and cook for 5 hours, turning the eggs occasionally. Roll the eggs to crackle the shells, then drop them into a

bowl of cold water to soak for 5 minutes. Slipe off the shells, crumble and serve with salt and ground cumin or over simmered cooked favas, egyptian style.

.

[Adam Balic]

No crockpot (although I remember the '80's), but my oven goes down to 50.C. I have a very long article on cooking eggs in this manner, I shall see if I can find it.

[hedgehog]

William Rubel, author of The Magic of Fire (Ten Speed

Press), told me that he roasts eggs in the oven for several

hours, achieving the same delicious results as if he'd roasted them all night buried in hot ash in the fireplace.

[=Mark]

I'm surprised Cabrales has not found this topic...

[Adam Balic]

That sounds easy. In the article I read, the author had compared various techniques (different water temps, in oil, in oil and coffee etc), he concluded that to get the development of flavour was a seperate issue to leaving the white of the egg creamy. I am curious about what this new flavour tastes like.

[hedgehog]

I think you are referring to Harold McGee's very fine piece in petit propos culinaire.

He was writing about huevos haminados the sephardic method of simmering eggs in water overnight along with. onion skins and coffee for color and some flavor.

As good as that is, I personally think the oven, ash or crockpot method provides a smoky flavor, and is in the spirit of the ovid quote.

Some baking pointers for the oven: Set the oven rack on the middle rung. Soak the eggs in warm water while preheating the oven to 225 F. Set the eggs directly on the rack. Bake for 5 hours. Stagger the removal for a multi-hued effect.

Some little spots may appear on the shell. Don't worry about them they are bits of albumin breaking through the shell.

The trick to getting the shell off is described in my earlier note.

[Adam Balic]

OK, now I am really impressed. That was exactly the article I was refering to! Note to self: Hedgehog seems very well read PPC and Ovid? Most likely ex-diplomat.

I shall do this in the next two days and report back.

Edited February 28, 2003 by Adam Balic (log)

[hedgehog]

ground cumin and coarse salt is good with the eggs.

Rubell suggests anchovy vinaigrette.

I will look for your comments.

[hjshorter]

Ok. now that we've solved that hard-boiled mystery... what do you do with em once you have them that way? Aside from coloring them?

Egg salad. Mmmmmmmmmm. A little good mayo, dijon mustard, tarragon, scallions - and a good rusic style bread.

[Bashful3]

My method is entirely different, and I've been getting great results for almost 50 years.

I start with a pot of slightly salted boiling water . With flame on high, I gently over eggs (right from the fridge) into the boiling water, one by one. After the last one is added, I bring the temp up to a slow simmer, and simmer for exactly 20 minutes. Plop into cold water after draining; peel immediately. No sticking, no undercooking, no problems.

Two favorite recipes: egg salad is simply chopped egg, with addition of parsley, sliced scallion, maybe a tad celery. Mayo to taste--only Hellmans. I don't use salt, but sometimes I add a little dijon mustard, which give a great taste without overpowering.

Deviled eggs: just cut in half, spoon out the yellow. Mix with a little dry mustard, same greens, mayo. Spoon into whites, sprinkle paprika on top.

[Suzanne F]

Ok. now that we've solved that hard-boiled mystery... what do you do with em once you have them that way? Aside from coloring them?

Coat one side of a slice of rye (or whole wheat) bread with butter. Coat one side of the same kind of bread with dijon mustard. Peel and slice one or two eggs. Place egg slices on top of butter. Sprinkle very lightly with salt, somewhat more heavily with pepper. On top of egg slices, place slices of Emmenthaler or Gruyère or sharp Cheddar, or some other well-flavored-but-not-too-strong cheese. Optional: on cheese, place slices of dead-ripe tomatoes. Cover with second slice of bread, mustard side down. Cut in half, if preferred. Eat.

[Suzanne F]

I'm surprised Cabrales has not found this topic...

Um, Mark, see: this pronouncement.

[Xanthippe]

Coat one side of a slice of rye (or whole wheat) bread with butter.  Coat one side of the same kind of bread with dijon mustard.  Peel and slice one or two eggs.  Place egg slices on top of butter.  Sprinkle very lightly with salt, somewhat more heavily with pepper.  On top of egg slices, place slices of Emmenthaler or Gruyère or sharp Cheddar, or some other well-flavored-but-not-too-strong cheese.  Optional: on cheese, place slices of dead-ripe tomatoes.  Cover with second slice of bread, mustard side down.  Cut in half, if preferred.  Eat.

MUST . . . MAKE . . . THIS . . . SANDWICH . . . *NOW*!! No kidding, and I just finished Lunch, Part 1 a mere hour ago! Think I'll put a thin slice of sweet onion (Walla Wallas, purchased Wednesday afternoon at my local Farmers' Market) on the cheese, being as it's not even close to dead-ripe tomato season.

Eggs, eggs, eggs. Adore 'em. Soft boiled, medium boiled, poached, shirred, fried, scrambled, deviled, any old how. Also bought 1/2 dozen duck eggs at the FM; how pretty they are -- some pale green, some pale tan-fading-to-ivory. Don't believe I've ever had duck eggs; does one do anything different with/to them?

Off to consume Lunch, Part 2.

[Nick]

Take the eggs out of the refrigerator and allow them to come to room temperature - this prevents cracking when lowering into boiling water. Bring water to a boil and lower them in. If they're average sized eggs, cook at a slow boil for 10-12 minutes. Pour off the hot water and immediately cover the eggs with cold water. Maybe pour that water off and cover with more cold water (the idea is to cool the eggs rapidly so they peel easily.) Peel right away.

[rozrapp]

I place my eggs directly from the fridge into a pot and cover them with cold tap water. After the water comes to a boil, I cook the eggs for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, I get a bowl ready with ice cubes and water. When I think the eggs are done, I remove them from the pot and spin them to make sure they're totally hard-boiled. (An uncooked egg will barely spin. A hard-boiled egg will spin rapidly.) Then I crack the eggs slightly and put them into the ice water for a few moments. The cracks enable the cold water to get under the shell, and it peels off easily.

Ok. now that we've solved that hard-boiled mystery... what do you do with em once you have them that way? Aside from coloring them?

I use chopped hard-boiled eggs in the following:

egg salad, of course -- I like it with just lots of onion and Hellman's mayo

tuna (canned) and egg salad -- again, with onion and Hellman's

when making chopped liver

when making vegetarian (aka "mock:) chopped liver

as an ingredient in cauliflower grebiche (a Jacques Pepin recipe)

as part of a cob salad -- white and yellow chopped separately into fine mince

as a coarsely chopped topping for spinach and mushroom salad

[Adam Balic]

ground cumin and coarse salt is good with the eggs.

Rubell suggests anchovy vinaigrette.

I will look for your comments.

OK so I roasted eggs on the weekend. Eggs soaked in water and put into small Spanish terracotta pot to (in case of egg breakage and as a nod to Hedgehogs art/literature references). Oven pre-heated to 65.C. Eggs roasted for 5 or 8 hours. After roasting period eggs put into water, cracked and peeled.

No problem with peeling eggs, shell and membrane removed easily. Egg white now a dark tan colour, darker in the longer cooked egg. On slicing the egg, brown colour was seen to penatrate entire white in 8 hour egg, patchy in 5 hour egg. Egg yolk had a very distinct green ring. In any case all eggs were chopped roughly, sprinkled with maldon salt, freshly ground cumin and New olive oil.

Served to guests, who I told that as the eggs were experimental, they should feel they had to eat them. Obviously, my cunning reverse physcology worked and they all tasted them. Eggs were pronounced "excellent, fantastic", so I was pleased.

Note: to egg boilers, if you keep eggs in the refridgerator, they won't be as good as if you keep them at room temp.

[Huevos del Toro]

Note: to egg boilers, if you keep eggs in the refridgerator, they won't be as good as if you keep them at room temp.

I use refrigerator temp large eggs, the cold water, bring to boil, take off heat, wait 10 min, shock and peel method. Never any problem. They don't crack because I put them into cool water at the outset (at least that's why I think they don't crack). But I'm quite curious about them not being as good if not started from room temp. Could you elaborate a little on the differences you see? Is it flavor, texture, appearance?

[Adam Balic]

Note: to egg boilers, if you keep eggs in the refridgerator, they won't be as good as if you keep them at room temp.

I use refrigerator temp large eggs, the cold water, bring to boil, take off heat, wait 10 min, shock and peel method. Never any problem. They don't crack because I put them into cool water at the outset (at least that's why I think they don't crack). But I'm quite curious about them not being as good if not started from room temp. Could you elaborate a little on the differences you see? Is it flavor, texture, appearance?

It is a taste and texture thing. Which I mention in this post:

My Bio

I find that the whites of the eggs break down and become watery when stored in the refridgerator. Keeping eggs at room temp. for two weeks is fine and why would you want to keep eggs longer then this? There flavour and texture is only going to break down, so no need to refridgerate.

[Miss J]

I cannot BELIEVE you've just pointed someone towards The Balic, Adam. That's just plain cruel.

[Adam Balic]

It's fine if they stick to the first ten pages . After that is were the rot sets in.