Buy Our Winning Steamer Basket:
Buy Our Winning Sauce Pan:
Buy Our Winning Storage Container:
Boiled eggs that start in cold water are hard to peel because the proteins in the egg white set slowly, which gives them time to fuse to the surrounding membrane. When you try to remove the shell, parts of the white cling to the membrane, and the surface of the egg is unattractively pockmarked. Instead of a cold-water start, we place cold eggs directly into hot steam, which rapidly denatures the outermost egg white proteins, causing them to form a solid gel that shrinks and pulls away from the membrane. The shell slips off easily to reveal smooth, unblemished hard-cooked eggs.
What makes a good sauce pan?
More Kitchen Smarts:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
22 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I've used the Gitter method for creating hard-boiled eggs a number of times over the last several weeks with an unqualified success every time! It's pure genius! Thank you for sharing such a helpful kitchen trick! I love it!
Larry A.
Don't know why but the shaking part ended up being catastrophic. Half of the eggs started shredding to pieces and even a couple of solid yolks broke right out of the the eggs. Half the eggs was just in shards.
Aa km b
Well I'm gonna try this today. I'm skeptical. Lol I deal with fresher eggs.
But who wants an egg yolk that HARD?
Those tips were EGGscellent!
I forgot all the rules and wasted half of each egg I boiled…😢 This was useful as were the other suggestions. Thank you!
0:57 13 minutes to steam eggs? Man, that killed this recipe for me. That’s double the time it normally takes and less energy efficient.
I take the eggs from fridge to electric kettle heated boiling water in a right sized heated pot, but only fill it with water about halfway up the eggs up and steam/boil them for about 6 minutes.
I almost never have a peeling problem since I’ve done this.
This takes more time than just peeling each for a minute
Useless video, should be titled steamed eggs! Not boiled.
WOW! This really works. Not only does it work, it works really well…
Thank you! Gonna try this!
Is that like a balisong that isn’t a knife? where would you buy that
By far the best method I’ve tried. I cook them for at least 13 minutes. Too vigorous a shake afterwards has also resulted in the eggs falling apart.
4 days to make a boiled egg so u can peel the shell off easier.
I just mutilated at least four out of six eggs the other day, I was trying to make egg salad. Lol. definitely going to give this method a try.
so much effort …
Following the instructions to the letter, did not work.
no one has this much time
Absolutely perfect, first time out, simple to master technique, I was taking a risk kicking momma out of the kitchen but now she has a perfectly cooked and peeled eggs that took 5 simple minutes to peel, I am a Hero and much thanks for this excellent method ! 24 perfect devilled egg halfs, only one detail,? how long to wait before starting, for the eggs to warm to about room temperature, will probly keep them from cracking during the steaming process. I had two crack during cooking. but they still peeled just fine using this method…absolute genius.
I just subscribed! Great video and cooking process.
1. Slide egg slowly into boiling water
2. Cook 5 minutes, reduce heat
3. Turn off and sit for 5 minutes
4. Remove egg and put into ice bath (freeze a container of water for about 2 hours).
5. The egg will be easy to peel after 20 minutes. The yolk is just cooked, no green ring.