Boiling an egg: it’s a simple thing, but there are actually so many questions involved. How do you boil the perfect soft boiled egg to top your ramen with? What time do you cook your egg for the best runny middle? How can you tell if your eggs are fresh? And can you make air fryer boiled eggs? Gah, so many queries, so many quandaries. Which means there’s only one thing to do, and that’s to step into my Test Kitchen. Hard, soft, runny and the perfect peel… I’m covering it all.
TEST 1: How to tell if an egg is fresh
Ready for your egg anatomy lesson? OK, so you’ve got yolk. You’ve got the white. And you’ve also got an air sac, which grows as the egg ages due to the shell being porous. The older the egg, the larger the air sac, the more likely it will float.
This is where the egg float test comes in. Simply fill a bowl with cold tap water and carefully lower your egg into it. If it sinks to the bottom of the bowl and lays on its side, it’s eggs a-go-go time, my friend: it’s fresh and good to eat. If the egg rests on the bottom with its base upwards, you’re also good – it just means your egg is older and has a larger air sac. Since the air sac is at the bottom of the egg, that’s why this part is gravitating up.
What’s NOT good is if the whole egg floats, which will happen because of the very large air cell that’s formed at the base. Which means contamination and nastiness.
Can you still eat eggs that float?
No, no you cannot. Throw out any floating eggs.
How to tell if eggs are bad, part 2: the sniff test
If you’re still unsure, you can try the smell test. Crack the egg onto a small clean plate. Eggs that are good to eat won’t smell at all, although bad eggs will emit a faint sulphuric smell. Trust your nose: any whiff of ick, and chuck that egg away.
TEST 2: Can you SEE how fresh an egg is?
Sure can. Visually, you can tell freshness from how firm and compact the egg white is. For instance, in the picture above, the fresh egg at the bottom of the image has a strong white structure, while the one above is looser and not rigid at all. (And yes, they are different colours but that’s just down to what the chickens who laid the eggs ate.)
The structure is important when it comes to poaching eggs or frying. The fresher eggs will hold their form a lot more, resulting in a more compact finish.
How to buy the freshest eggs at the supermarket
Here’s where the egg carton can help you. Depending on what country you live in, food labelling will differ. You might see a ‘packed on’ date, in which case you can easily choose the freshest eggs on the shelf. In Australia, we go with ‘best before’ dates – this is usually six weeks from the date the eggs were packed. Again, you want to pick the eggs with the furthest-away best-before date to get the fresh ones.
TEST 3: What’s the best way to peel an egg?
Peeling an egg that won’t peel nicely… it’s so annoying. Especially if you’re making a delicious ramen recipe or a dish like devilled eggs where that smooth finish is everything. So what’s a home cook to do? I tried out adding white vinegar to the water, pricking a small hole in the base of the egg, plunging the boiled egg into an ice bath – everything. And I found that only two things really mattered: the freshness of the egg, and the temperature of the water.
TEST 4: Do I boil an egg in cold water or boiling water?
There are two trains of thought here when starting to make boiled eggs. The first is that you add the egg to a pan of already boiling water and start your countdown immediately. And the second is adding the egg to a pan of cold water, bringing it to the boil and then starting your timer.
I found the cold water egg was hard to peel and the resulting egg was bumpy, lumpy and generally not beauty contender-worthy. The boiling water boiled egg, on the other hand, had a much better result. Easy peel, smooth finish. We have a winner, my friend.
As an extra test, I looked into whether older or fresher eggs had the superior peel. Honestly, didn’t really make that much difference, so there’s no need to age your eggs for the perfect egg peeling technique.
How long to boil an egg: TESTED
It’s a personal thing: some people like a runny soft boiled egg, some prefer a firmer, hard boiled egg. Everyone has a preference, and that is AOK. But you still want to get the best out of it, right? I cooked boiled eggs for varying times at two-minute intervals, ranging from 6–14 minutes, to compare the results.
My conclusion? It’s all down to what you like as an individual. For me personally, I like a six-minute egg for the ultimate jammy middle – it’s the perfect ramen egg. And I like more of a 10-minute for a harder boil. But you do you, boo.
Bonus round: steamed and air fryer boiled eggs
As for alternative cooking methods for making boiled eggs, I tried steaming and using an air fryer. Honestly? Not a fan. The steamed egg was so difficult to peel, and a six-minute cook time wasn’t enough. Which makes me think: why would I steam an egg for longer when I can get a better result from boiling it… in less time?
The boiled egg in an air fryer method had, well, weird results. For starters, there was an odd crater shape left in the egg, as well as discoloration and brown spots. Conclusion: it looked like an alien egg, and it wasn’t my cup of tea at all.
So there you go. Another round of Marion’s Test Kitchen, and all your egg-related questions answered. Now all that’s left to do is cook a delicious egg recipe that heroes gooey, creamy, runny eggs in all their glory.
