Today I learned the secret to hard boiling eggs—make sure you use a kitchen timer!
I put a pot of boiling eggs on the burner on high and left the kitchen, forgetting to set my Grandma Amelia’s white Mirro-matic timer. “Granny” used to have an expression for avoiding such kitchen disasters: “You can’t cook in the bedroom, Dearie!” (i.e., don’t leave a pot on the stove unattended.)
Well, Granny, you can’t cook in the garden either!
I went outside for about 15 minutes to pull some weeds. When I came back in, I smelled something strange—kind of smokey. But I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. When I walked into the kitchen, I realized I had completely forgotten the four eggs boiling in a pot. I lifted the lid and saw that all the water had evaporated.
Four scorched eggs sat at the bottom of the pot!
I turned off the heat and backed away. It’s lucky I did. A minute later one of the eggs exploded—all over the stove and floor. As I surveyed the damage, I tried not to be too hard on myself and focused on the lesson I learned instead. I felt bad that I wasted four eggs, but I did actually need a new one-quart pot.
I can’t wait to tell my granddaughters about my “unplanned science experiment!” I’ll ask them: Where did the water go? What made the egg explode? What did I learn from this experiment?
The lesson I learned: Don’t leave the kitchen when you’re boiling water and always set your kitchen timer. The incident also reminded me of a headline I saw in last week’s paper: Why older people can’t multitask as well.
After I cleaned up the mess, I hard boiled four more eggs and this time they came out just right … and I stayed in the kitchen for the whole time. Here’s a fool-proof recipe for hard boiled eggs.
Hard Boiled Eggs Recipe
- Puncture the end of each egg with a pin or egg puncher.
- Place eggs in a one-quart pot and cover with water.
- Cover with a lid and bring to a rolling boil. [Don't leave the kitchen!]
- As soon as the water starts to boil, turn off the heat.
- Set the timer for 25 minutes and leave the eggs in the covered pot.
- Then pour off the water and cover the eggs with cold water and ice cubes.
The egg shells will peel off easily.
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