All my life I’ve struggled to produce the perfect hard-cooked egg, one with a peel that slicked right off and a yoke that was bright yellow with no green ring. I tried everything. Start them from room temperature. Make sure the eggs are a little old so that the membrane releases from the shell. Poke a hole in the big end of the egg. While I would occasionally meet with success, it was always fleeting. Next time around, the shells would resist coming off, or the insides looked awful, or something else to prevent me from enjoying a perfect egg.
And then I discovered steaming. I don’t know why this works, but it most certainly does. I use my little collapsible veggie steamer, which will hold six large eggs. I don’t do anything to the eggs except to bring them to room temperature. Get a little water boiling in the bottom of the pot under the steamer. Put in the eggs. Cover. Steam for 14 minutes. Plunge the eggs into ice water to stop the cooking.
Although I haven’t tried cooking fresh-out-of-the-hen eggs this way, I have done it with eggs that are only 3 or 4 days old, and they still come out perfectly.
Four to six eggs is plenty for me to hard-cook at any one time. If you need more, I’m sure a larger steamer would work just fine.
Our eggs vary from extra large to medium. I generally stick to 14 minutes of steaming. If you’re cooking all medium or smaller eggs, steam them for 13 minutes.
