Contents
The cheapest complete protein there is and the most portable item in Cold Meals — an egg cooked in its shell keeps a week and needs no container.
The timings
Large eggs, lowered into already-boiling water, then simmered:
| Minutes | Result |
|---|---|
| 6 | Liquid yolk, set white — jammy, for ramen and bowls |
| 7 | Soft-set centre — best for a cold lentil bowl |
| 9 | Fully set, still bright yellow, still moist |
| 10 | Firm throughout — the egg salad sandwich egg |
| 13+ | Chalky, and the grey ring appears |
Ice water immediately, for at least five minutes. This stops the carryover cooking and shrinks the egg slightly away from the shell.
The grey-green ring
Iron sulfide, formed where the yolk's iron meets sulfur from the white when the egg is held too hot for too long. It tastes sulfurous. It is entirely a timing-and-cooling fault, not an egg-quality one.
Peeling
Use eggs that are a week or two old, not fresh ones. As an egg ages its albumen pH rises and the inner membrane releases from the shell; genuinely fresh eggs are miserable to peel. Starting the eggs in boiling water rather than cold is the other reliable trick — it sets the outer white fast and it releases cleanly. Peel under running water, from the fat end where the air cell sits.
Keeping
In the shell, one week refrigerated. Peeled, 2 days. Made into egg salad, 2 days — that is a firm limit, not a cautious one.
Elsewhere on the site
Used in: egg salad sandwich · cold lentil bowl · cold soba bowl · mezze plate · gazpacho
Related: cooking eggs · eggs · mayonnaise · preserving eggs