I’ll admit. This all started because I fell down one of those internet rabbit holes. It was one of those things. It looked interesting. Then, before you know it, you’re questioning everything you know.
There has apparently been a great debate raging in Britain about how to properly boil an egg. I know. It’s easy, right. If you can boil water, you can boil an egg. But not so fast!
Do you put the egg in before or after it comes to a boil? How long do you cook them? Do you use an ice bath to stop cooking?
Seems to me some people were making this far to complicated, particularly when talking about a food you may consume before that first jolt of caffeine has managed to hit your system. But then I noticed the go to reference for a lot of this was a book that first came out back in during the second World War, when rationing was a thing and people were struggling to figure out how to feed their families in a time of shortage. The name of this book? How To Cook A Wolf.
Yes. How To Cook A Wolf. Love the title! But what does it have to do with cooking eggs? But I may have to get a copy of this book. I mean… the title alone. Plus… what if I actually need to cook a wolf? It’s not a recipe you find in too many other cookbooks.
But back to the eggs. After checking several sources, the best way to do this is apparently start with cold water in a pot, put your eggs in, bring to a boil quickly, boil for the desired time for the type of yolk you want, remove from heat, put the eggs in a cold or ice water bath to stop them cooking, and enjoy.
To me, it would seem to make more sense to put the eggs in water already at the boil in the pot, but many of the sources tell me this is not correct. You would think it would give better control over cooking time. Apparently no. You might think the shock of going into boiling water may also make hard boiled eggs easier to peal. Again, the answer seems to be no.
So now that I have discovered how best to boil an egg, I guess I can move on to bigger items. Although I’m not sure I’m quite ready for a wolf. I think I may need to read the book first. After all, there’s a whole lot more to boiling an egg than I thought.
