[Trillium]

The secret to keep eggs from cracking is to take them out of the fridge about 15 min before you intend to cook them. they need time to warm to room temp. I add mine to boiling water, but I very slowly lower each egg into the water, again so it can adapt a bit and the air space inside won't blow the shell. I rarely have any crack with this method.

We do hard boiled eggs for about 12-15 minutes so the yolk is just firm enough for slicing into potato salad. Can't stand runny yolks in potato salad. Once boiled, I drain out the water and immediately fill the pot with cold water to stop the cooking and shrink back the inner skin.

[Kleftiwallah]

I do all eggs into boiling water, 8 mins hard(ish) boiled, 6 mins for soldiers.  I also ALWAYS put my hot hard boiled eggs in iced water to cool down, can't stand the black bit around the yolk!!

I used to be the Chargehand I/C. the "egg boiling plant" at Bowyers and we used to boil as many eggs as could be fitted into 4 standard garages every day!  To stop the eggs getting 'that black ring' around the yolks, the eggs were soaked for 24 hours in Hydrogen peroxide !   Next time you buy a scotch egg.  .  .  .Cheers,   Tony.

[johnfh]

Thanks Tenhens never thought of that before.
 Five minites in our budget steamer and one comes out perfectly soft boiled. No cracking and no need to worry about timing (set steamer) provided you get it out  smartish. Any idea about doing two at a time?

[Growster...]

What about an egg coddler?

They make for great boiled eggs, but we've lost both of ours...