Making Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

It's easy to make great hard boiled eggs. There are just a few tips and tricks you need to keep in mind when boiling your eggs. Here's a step by step to making and peeling perfect hard boiled eggs.

Extremely fresh eggs do not peel easily. It's a good idea to make sure your eggs are at least 2 weeks old before you cook them--if not, they will be harder to peel. Also, if you cook the eggs slowly over a low heat, they're going to be harder to peel than if you boil them. There is a trick to helping the peeling along though and I've added that at the bottom of these directions.

Place your eggs in a medium saucepan and cover them completely with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Once the water starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium and cook for ten minutes.

Remove the eggs from the burner and place the entire pan in the sink, running cold water into the pan. This helps to keep the eggs from getting that greenish gray film covering the yolks. Chill the eggs in the cold water until they are cool enough to peel--at least 5 minutes or so.

When the eggs are cooled and you're ready to peel them, you should be able to roll the egg on the counter to crackle the shell and it should come off easily.

If, however, you happened to boil fresh eggs and they are tenaciously hanging onto their shell, here's a little trick I learned to help me out. When the eggs are cooled, roll them on the counter to crackle the shell. Then soak them in cold water for 5 minutes. The water seeps into the cracks loosening the shell from the egg and they are much easier to peel.