Eggs in a steamer

[Porthos]

Costco eggs for me or from WinCo. Same producer: Hickman Farms.

 

I have been given eggs from friends who have chickens. For my purposes I prefer store-bought.  Quick explanation. Each morning during the ren faires I am parts I send out 5 dozen HB eggs as part of a "conteninal" breakfast - muffin bits, crossiants , orange slices and HB eggs. In the spring I need an extra 5 dozen on Sundays because a guild member makes deviled eggs for part of our feast. I like to hard-cook all 15 dozed before going out to faire site just to save my time at faire for other tasks (yay for 8 qt Cambros - they hold 5 dozen eggs). During spring pre-faire (when we participants are creating the faire environment over 4 weekends) our group sells sandwiches as a fund-raiser. That's another 5 dozen per weekend day. That is why a consistent, more efficient way of getting the eggs hard-cooked is so appealing to me.

[patrickamory]

I learned about steaming eggs from David Thompson's Thai Cooking (with regard to duck eggs, but it works for chicken eggs too), and have never looked back.

[Smithy]

dcarch: how I laughed with that 'egghead' joke! I'm easily amused, I suppose, but thanks for the laugh! :-D Further to your question: so far, when I have a problem with peeling an egg shell, it seems to be the membrane sticking to both the white and the shell; if I can get the membrane to release from the white then everything peels easily. I've never seen an egg membrane that stuck to the white and not to the shell, so to me 'easy peeling' means the membrane releases readily from the white. Is that what you meant?

Porthos: I suspect that I'm in your general vicinity during some faire or other. Would you please either post or PM me some links for next year?

Norm Matthews and patrickamory, I'm not deliberately excluding you...thanks for your additions!

I first heard about the steamer method from some random guy in a Tuesday Mornings store. My mother and I were browsing, during one of our last ambulatory visits together. We were pondering some kiitchen gear and talking about how irritating it is to try to peel hard-boiled eggs when the shells won't release. "Psst!" said the stranger, "here's the secret!" He told me about steaming eggs. I thanked him politely, and Mom and I went about our business. "What was that about?" asked my mother. I told her, rolling my eyes, "Never mind, it was a crank." I'm sorry to say it took me nearly 2 years afterward to try the method. Apologies to the 'crank', whoever he was.

[GlorifiedRice]

Amazon has egg steamers...They are very old fashioned. My mom had one growing up.

[Shel_B]

Grocery store large grade AA eggs are all close enough to being the same size and age that there isn't a need for concern over the differences.

 

That's not been my experience. Large eggs that I have purchased have shown a substantial and measureable difference in size and weight.  The last dozen large eggs I bought looked more like medium, and a carton that I bought last month looked closer to another brand's XL. 

[andiesenji]

Amazon has egg steamers...They are very old fashioned. My mom had one growing up.

I will explain my decision to begin using an automatic egg cooker back in the early '70s. 

I was tasked with preparing 6 dozen deviled eggs for a potluck party.

I put about 18 eggs in a pot, waited till the water returned to a "simmer" and set the timer.  I got busy doing something else and for some reason the timer did not sound.  I forgot all about the eggs until an ugly miasma began drifting through the house - and I discovered the pot had boiled dry, the eggs had sort of exploded and not only the kitchen but that entire section of the house had to be fumigated and we had to stay out of that end of the house for two days. 

 

I went straight to Sears and bought an Oster - one with a glass lid - and I still have it, although I have upgraded to a newer model. 

[Norm Matthews]

That's not been my experience. Large eggs that I have purchased have shown a substantial and measureable difference in size and weight.  The last dozen large eggs I bought looked more like medium, and a carton that I bought last month looked closer to another brand's XL. 

I can't recall that that has ever been my experience with grocery store eggs, but in the grading system used by the USDA, one dozen “Large” eggs could contain some eggs that are significantly smaller, or larger than others, providing the total carton weight is approximately 24 ounces, all eggs in that carton are, based on an average, “Large” for the purpose of sale. This means a large egg should weigh, on average,  2 ounces.  That’s all it is, an average weight.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Norm Matthews (log)

[Porthos]

For most of my life I did very little steaming - just had one of those little metalic "flower petal" inserts. In either 2003 or 2004 I got tired of the time it took to boil 5 lbs of vegetables in the ren faire kitchen, came across an S/S 8 qt steamer at an outlet mall up in Barstow for all of $10.00, bought it and have never looked back. When we replaced our cookware several years ago I kept the steamer that was part of that set for our kitchen.

 

It was last year here on eGullet I first heard of steaming potatoes, in that case for potato salad. I haven't boiled a potato since - and we steam 10 lbs of potatoes every morning of ren faire. The only vegetable that I don't care to steam is Brussels Sprouts. Those get roasted. So the idea that eggs could be steamed seemed reasonable but I wanted to see the results for myself. After yesterday's success with the small batch I have had to beat down the urge to go buy 5 dozed and see how they do, after a week of aging,  in the big steamer.

 

Edited to add: I do still simmer asparagus - or cut them up and saute' them. I have never got steaming them right.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Porthos (log)

[GlorifiedRice]

I will explain my decision to begin using an automatic egg cooker back in the early '70s. 

I was tasked with preparing 6 dozen deviled eggs for a potluck party.

I put about 18 eggs in a pot, waited till the water returned to a "simmer" and set the timer.  I got busy doing something else and for some reason the timer did not sound.  I forgot all about the eggs until an ugly miasma began drifting through the house - and I discovered the pot had boiled dry, the eggs had sort of exploded and not only the kitchen but that entire section of the house had to be fumigated and we had to stay out of that end of the house for two days. 

 

I went straight to Sears and bought an Oster - one with a glass lid - and I still have it, although I have upgraded to a newer model. 

 

this one is adorable

www.amazon.com/dp/B00004SABW/ref=nosim/?tag=egulletsociety-20

[Martin Fisher]

 

I can't recall that that has ever been my experience with grocery store eggs, but in the grading system used by the USDA, one dozen “Large” eggs could contain some eggs that are significantly smaller, or larger than others, providing the total carton weight is approximately 24 ounces, all eggs in that carton are, based on an average, “Large” for the purpose of sale. This means a large egg should weigh, on average,  2 ounces.  That’s all it is, an average weight.

 

 

 

 

There's actual a lot to egg grades, sizes, etc. and I know for a fact that the rules aren't always followed.

 

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3004376

[homefrontgirl]

I'm trying this tomorrow.  I'm wondering about altitude?  When I hard cook eggs (I always use America's Test Kitchen's method) I have to leave eggs on the boil a bit longer as I'm above 6,000 feet and my water boils at a lower temp.  I'll try steaming for 13 minutes and go from there.

 

 

[lindag]

I've never steamed eggs before, nor have I ever steamed potatoes for potato salad. 

I think my life has been changed and I can't wait to try that method.

[andiesenji]

I have done quite a few "experimental" egg cooking techniques.

 

When I was still doing some part-time catering, I had a request for a large number of hard-boiled eggs for a local children's day camp event during Easter break.

 

At that time I had a Hobart dishwasher - which had a built-in water heater for "sanitizing" .  I had read an article about "cooking in a dishwasher" and decided to give it a try.

First I ran it empty - through two or three cycles, to make sure it was totally free of detergent  (90 seconds each cycle)  Then I put 8-dozen eggs in wire baskets and set them in the "open" dishwasher trays, then ran it through four cycles (6 minutes) and left the door closed for about 15 minutes then doused the baskets in a tub of ice water.

They turned out perfect, except for a few that cracked. 

The group needed the eggs so the kids could dye their own - 2 each - and they had allowed extras for "accidents" and etc. 

 

It was an interesting experiment but I never again had a call for that many hard-boiled eggs all at once. 

[homefrontgirl]

I just tried this and it worked like a charm.  I was meaning to steam for 13 minutes, but I was timing with my watch and that is always a mistake.  The eggs went for 17 minutes and are perfect.  My 7 year old loves hard boiled eggs and he's a pretty ruthless judge.  He's eating one right now and pronounces them perfection.  

 

For the record I did 6 Eggland's Best large eggs in my steamer basket.  I started the water on a simmer and then added the eggs in the basket, covered, steamed and then cold-water bathed to stop cooking.

 

 

[JAZ]

This is one of my 13 minute eggs. The yolks are fully set but there is no beginning of the grey-green darkening at the outside of the yolk.  Peeling eggs is not normally a concern since I age eggs first before hard-cooking them.

 

 

Steamed_eggs.jpg

 

Having just steamed several dozen eggs in batches over a couple of weeks for an article, I can say that from my experience, if you're talking about supermarket eggs, an extra week or so makes absolutely no difference in ease of peeling. I steamed eggs that were two weeks apart in their sell-by date and couldn't tell the difference. In peeling, that is. The older eggs didn't look nearly as nice -- the yolks weren't as well centered and they often had divots or flat spots at the bottom (I'm assuming from the air pocket.) Since I have no experience with truly fresh eggs (like straight from the hen or farmer), I can't speak to how well they peel.