No Instant Pot and want hard boiled eggs? Steam them!

[cookingmylife]

I read the trick about steaming eggs years ago because my dh loves deviled eggs. I was also getting fresh from the chicken eggs from a friend so..I needed an easy way to not hate hard boiling them.

Put your room temperature eggs in a steamer pan, get the water in the main pan boiling, put the steamer on the lower pot, cover and set your timer for 10 minutes.

Take the steamer pan with eggs off the heat and run cold water over the eggs or put a bunch of ice cubes over them and go do something fun. Maybe make a cup of tea or coffee. As soon as the eggs have cooled, you can peel. I still roll them on a counter to get the whole shell shattered but once you start the peel the shell usually comes off in two halves or so. If you want a soft boiled egg, just pull one or two out at 5 minutes or so. I do have an egg cup and the egg cutter from my England days cause otherwise that hot egg is too hot for my 'delicate' fingers.

I actually have an old steamer pan with a handle but have used the collapsing inserts as well esp if I'm going to be in a rental place on vacation.

btw, this method also eliminates that gray ring round the yolk. HTH if you don't have or want an Insta pot but want hard boiled eggs.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

I found another way to do hard boiled eggs and they turned out pretty good.

Crock Pot.

It may take longer than steaming like you posted or on the stove or in an insta pot but it worked for me!

Fill the crockpot with eggs but don't stack them.
Put enough water in to just cover the eggs.
Salt the water liberally.
Set on high for 2 hrs 30 minutes (low = 3 hrs 30 minutes)
As soon as time is up, remove the eggs and place them into the cold water bath to stop the cooking.

I have a small 2 quart Rival crock pot that I tried them in. I was able to get 8 or 9 eggs in it. I figured that would be a good amount to try to see if it worked. I've never fixed hard boiled eggs that I could peel so easily in my life. I will definitely be doing this again.

 

[bestcee]

I always thought it was the cold water bath that made them easy to peel? I've never tried steaming them. Just cooked them the normal way in a pot.

 

[cookingmylife]

@bestcee No, I don't think it's the cold water that makes the peeling easier but it definitely does stop the cooking process which will result in a gray ring. I think I read that the steaming does something different to the shell. Where's Alton Brown when you need him???

@HavaDrPepper The crockpot is an interesting idea if you have more time. My crock pot is big and is more trouble to get out unless I have a big meal to cook. But I'd say if you have a lot of young children, that method would be easier and safer.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

@bestcee No, I don't think it's the cold water that makes the peeling easier but it definitely does stop the cooking process which will result in a gray ring. I think I read that the steaming does something different to the shell. Where's Alton Brown when you need him???

@HavaDrPepper The crockpot is an interesting idea if you have more time. My crock pot is big and is more trouble to get out unless I have a big meal to cook. But I'd say if you have a lot of young children, that method would be easier and safer.

Everything I was reading in my research on doing hard boiled eggs any way besides the stove was that the cold water immersion stopped the cooking process.

I'm lucky that I have that small crockpot and it was the perfect size to do the eggs. Since I'm single with no children I bought it thinking that it would be easier to fix meals for 1 in it. Of course, all the recipes of stuff I like are too much for it. I have now found a use for it. Yesterday I used it to make a baked potato... Best one I have made in a LONG time! I can see it getting a lot of use in the future. The time factor to do both the eggs and the potato didn't bother me because it was no mess in the end (I tend to have water boiling over when I do eggs on the stove and with the new stove, the cleanup of the cooktop is a pain).