what's best: boil eggs in advance or just before use?

Question

let's say I want to eat a hard-boiled egg every day of the week. should I boil them and store them (refrigerated) all at once or should I keep raw eggs in the fridge and hard-boil them just before use?

edit: by best I mean the acceptable trade-off between saving time and energy vs. shelf-life and taste. I mentioned a working week to limit the scope to 5 days, i.e. how much would a hard-boiled egg's taste and texture degrade after 5 days on the fridge?

Asked by Dan

Answer

By your definition, I would cook them all at one time. From there you have a couple options.

1. Leave them in the shell and peel when needed. This keeps out a lot of the air which extends the shelf life to 2 weeks, but can dry them out a little making the texture a little harder.
2. Immediately peel and dry them as best as possible. Put them in a Zip Lock along with a dry paper towel on the bottom to catch any extra water and condensation. Remove as much air as possible. The texture is much better, but your shelf life if approx. 1 week and is a little smellier. (also can put zip lock into a covered container) Lol. Food stores now sell eggs this way.

Either way you may want to let them sit on the counter long enough to take the chill off, so it's not as hard. For me it doesn't matter, I can eat them any old way. LOVE EM!

Answered by Onepotmeals

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Will hard boiled eggs absorb salt through the shell?

Question

In this America's Test Kitchen video they add salt to the cold water when hard boiling eggs: http://www.cookscountry.com/videos/Hard-Cooked-Eggs/28960/

Would the salt actually permeate the shell and flavor the egg? That seems unlikely to me and is just a waste of good salt.

(Apart from the salt, that method is not new to me. My old, Mom-gave-it-to-me-when-I-got-my-first-apartment Betty Crocker cookbook has the same instructions.)

Asked by Galapagos Jim

Answer

Salt or acid is often added to the water when boiling eggs to denature egg whites faster should there be a crack and a leak.

I have not read anything that experiments whether this is effective. It also sounds like "don't wash mushrooms" or "pasta must be cooked in a ton of water" kind of old wives tales.

Answered by Sobachatina

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How to ensure that eggs get hard boiled on a gas stove?

Question

I used to determine the state of eggs by their shell i.e. if the shell is cracked, the eggs have been boiled. But sometimes I have found that even though the shell is cracked, the egg whites are somewhat runny!

Is there a special way of boiling eggs on "gas stove"? Is it necessary to cover them while boiling?

Answer

I agree with @jwenting, 5-7 minutes in boiling water is the way to go. Remember to always put the eggs in cold water, if you put them in hot water you risk cracking the shell, especially if eggs are cold.

Also, to avoid premature cracking of the shell, that may leave some egg white leaking out, add a spoon of vinegar (should work with lemon juice too) to the water.

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