How to cook the perfect soft boiled egg

[JAS_OH1]

And now he has decided he wants them medium, not soft. Fickle man, LOL.

 

[Burt Blank]

[Mod. Edit: this and following few posts moved to start a new thread]

Hi everyone, I am new here! We are just starting to really enjoy the many ways of eating eggs in quarantine. I have been buying them a lot more than normal on my curbside grocery pickups. I accidentally made them soft-boiled about a week ago and now that's the only way my husband likes them. Does anyone have a fool-proof way of making sure the yolks are not overcooked? Thanks so much!

Place eggs in pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil , exactly 3 mins later perfect soft boiled egg. Size how cold the eggs are does not matter. The 3 mins after the water reaches boiling point is the key.

 

[Morning Glory]

Place eggs in pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil , exactly 3 mins later perfect soft boiled egg. Size how cold the eggs are does not matter. The 3 mins after the water reaches boiling point is the key.

I was planning a boiled egg for brunch tomorrow so I will test your method and post results. With photograph...

 

[Burt Blank]

I was planning a boiled egg for brunch tomorrow so I will test your method and post results. With photograph...

 

[Morning Glory]

Place eggs in pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil , exactly 3 mins later perfect soft boiled egg. Size how cold the eggs are does not matter. The 3 mins after the water reaches boiling point is the key.

Ok - I tried this. As you can see I ended up with a nearly set yolk. This was a very large egg from the fridge. The only things I could have done differently would have been to use a smaller saucepan and/or use a lid whilst the water was coming up to the boil. Anyway - it won't get wasted - it will go in a sandwich.

 

[rascal]

I did these too on Friday, quick tea, looked exactly like yours. That's how I like em.

Russ

 

[Burt Blank]

Ok - I tried this. As you can see I ended up with a nearly set yolk. This was a very large egg from the fridge. The only things I could have done differently would have been to use a smaller saucepan and/or use a lid whilst the water was coming up to the boil. Anyway - it won't get wasted - it will go in a sandwich.

That is for me a perfect soft boiled egg. The key is when the water reaches boiling point, if you had six of the same sized eggs cold out of the fridge it would take longer for the water to reach boiling point. I t's the three minutes after that that is critical. Knock a few seconds of if you want a very runny yolk.

 

[Morning Glory]

That is for me a perfect soft boiled egg. The key is when the water reaches boiling point, if you had six of the same sized eggs cold out of the fridge it would take longer for the water to reach boiling point. I t's the three minutes after that that is critical. Knock a few seconds of if you want a very runny yolk.

I did these too on Friday, quick tea, looked exactly like yours. That's how I like em.

That isn't a soft boiled egg by a long chalk in my world. I like the yolk to be totally runny. That's the whole point of soldiers - to mop up the yolk. If the yolk is part set then you can't do that.

I'll attempt this again and reduce the time to 2 minutes. The trouble is it took about 10 minute for it to reach boiling and I had to keep checking it so that I got the precise moment when reached boiling so its not a very quick method.

Its beginning to look like what people mean when they say 'soft boiled' egg is a mainly or partially set yolk. BBC Good Food defines the types & cooking times thus (room temperature eggs into boiling water):

How long to boil an egg:

• 5 minutes: set white and runny yolk – just right for dipping into
• 6 minutes: liquid yolk – a little less oozy
• 7 minutes: almost set – deliciously sticky
• 8 minutes: softly set – this is what you want to make Scotch eggs
• 10 minutes: the classic hard-boiled egg – mashable but not dry and chalky

Its beginning to look like what some people mean in this thread, when they say 'soft boiled' egg is a mainly or partially set yolk. The egg I cooked above using Burt Blank's is how I would perhaps want it for a Scotch egg or for a Niçoise Salad (the 7 to 8 minute method in the above list).

Am I alone here in wanting a runny yolk and opaque soft set white? I find 5 to 5½ mins (placed in boiling water is best). The microwave method still remains my favourite and fastest method. I may experiment by using cold water in the microwave method...

 

[Yorky]

I put an egg into a saucepan and cover it with cold water. I boil the water, then turn the heat down to simmer for 2 minutes. Sometimes it works and I get a nice runny yoke and a set white, sometimes it doesn't work and I either get a hard yoke or a liquidy white.

Just as a slight sidetrack, I don't eat my boiled egg with 'soldiers' - when I did this a long time ago, I was running out of egg a long time before I ran out of toast. Now I spoon the egg out of its shell and spread it all over the toast - well, as far as I can spread it - yum!

Like this?

with toast 7 s.jpg

• Yorky
• 12 Jan 2020

Soft boiled eggs.

 

[Yorky]

How long to boil an egg:

• 5 minutes: set white and runny yolk – just right for dipping into

If I boiled our duck eggs for 5 minutes the yolk would be set. And the duck eggs are larger and the shell thicker than our normal chicken eggs.

 

[TastyReuben]

I'll attempt this again and reduce the time to 2 minutes. The trouble is it took about 10 minute for it to reach boiling and I had to keep checking it so that I got the precise moment when reached boiling so its not a very quick method.

I know you like experimenting. Have you ever tried devising some kind of method using a kettle, since kettles boil so fast?

Am I alone here in wanting a runny yolk and opaque soft set white?

No. My "perfect" soft-boiled is a lot like the one Yorky posted. I want a completely cooked white (like a hard-boiled egg has), and a warm-but-completely-runny yolk. I've made plenty of eggs like that three-minute one, and I've eaten them, and they taste fine, but I've considered them failures because they've had the chunky yolk. They're good, but they're not soft-boiled, IMO.

We've talked about this a lot, and my problem is, I can't find a reliable method (even using the microwave method) that fully cooks the white and leaves the yolk runny. I've even gotten partially-cooked white and yolk, in the same egg.

One of these days, I'm just going to have to sit down with a dozen eggs and using one method, boil them in 15-second intervals until I find the consistency I like. I probably have a .005-second window where the white is cooked and the yolk isn't.

 

[Yorky]

I probably have a .005-second window where the white is cooked and the yolk isn't.

I agree that it is a fine line.

I time my "boiling" and "standing" times to the ¼ minute. One minute (exactly) boiling then 2¼ minutes standing for the smaller egg and 2½ minutes standing for the larger egg. This is for duck eggs.

I start with the egg at room temperature (about 1 hour after removal from the fridge) and water at room temperature (my room temperature is normally not less that 30°C.)

 

[Morning Glory]

If I boiled our duck eggs for 5 minutes the yolk would be set. And the duck eggs are larger and the shell thicker than our normal chicken eggs.

I think that is because you are putting them in room temperature water and then bringing to the boil and timing. The method I quoted is talking about adding the egg to already boiling water. If you do that with your duck egg it should be around 5 mins.

 

[Morning Glory]

I know you like experimenting. Have you ever tried devising some kind of method using a kettle, since kettles boil so fast?

I boil a kettle for the microwave method (and also for the saucepan method if adding eggs when water is boiling). It had crossed my mind to put the egg in the kettle - I can't see why it wouldn't work - but it might jiggle the egg around so much that it breaks the shell. Shall I try?

 

[CookieMonster]

TR - " I can't find a reliable method ..."
as you have discovered, tap water temp, size of pot, pan materials, ratio diameter to depth, amount of water, burner size, burner heat output, egg temp, how many eggs in the pot, egg size (S-M-L-XL etc), altitude, atmospheric pressure, and a couple dozen more things are all variables in the 'start cold, bring it to a boil, remove from heat, and let sit X minutes' approaches.
that's why what works in one kitchen utterly fails in another kitchen.
Lopez (I think it was him) did the experiment with 2 qt / 3 qt / 4 qt pans with pictures that demonstrated for the same "guide lines" how the start-cold-leave-sit just does not work reliably.

if you want reliable - try this method - it has two variables which you can control 100%
1 - keep the eggs in the same spot in the fridge and don't take them out until:
2 - a pot of water is boiling - the water must be deep enough to cover the egg(s)
3 - poke a hole in the big end, or don't - your choice. piercing the big end relieves internal pressure that can cause an egg with a minor defect to crack/ooze.
4 - keep the egg at a boil for M minutes and S seconds
5 - remove, allow to cool so you can handle it, eat.

this gets your your perfect soft-boiled egg, every single time without exception.
for me - it's 4 minutes 45 seconds, for DW 5 minutes 30 seconds.
you have to experiment with the time because your fridge temp and your personal idea of "perfect" is not likely the same as mine.