"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
...
>
> "MJ" > wrote in message
> . ..
>>I know that it has been posted before but you know what its like when it
>> doesnt pertain to what you need so you dont really pay attention to
>> it..well
>> thats me..lol..but now i need to know..what is the right way to boil eggs
>> for hard cooked. I am making devilled eggs and i want them cooked
>> perfect..Sometimes when i cook them the yolk goes kind of green so i
>> think i
>> am probably over cooking them. I would like to make them tonight so i
>> kind
>> of need answers quickly...THANKS in advance..
>
> EASY! Give me a minute ... foolproof method. Here you go:
>
>> > The green part is from overcooking. Put the eggs in cold water,
>> > bring to a boil, keep covered and remove from the heat. After
>> > 20 minutes, put the eggs in ice water to cool.
>> I've always been dubious of this method -- I was raised believing
>> that you had to keep 'em boiling for 20 minutes, and that the green
>> resulted from not cooling them fast enough when done cooking. But
>> I need to make devilled eggs for Easter Sunday, so this morning I
>> tried Nancy's method (and followed Sheldon's advice about keeping
>> the eggs in a single layer). I cooked an extra egg and ate it just
>> now -- WONDERFUL! None of them cracked, fully cooked, and not a
>> hint of green!
>
>

I am very doubtful about both of these explanations for green yolks
(overcooking and not cooling fast enought). I know it is accepted wisdom but
I have had several experiences that lead me to believe that something about
the egg itself plays a large role.

For example, my standard practice is to bring eggs and water to a boil,
cover, let sit off heat for 20 min then immediately put under fast running
cold water for at least 5 minutes. Usually this works fine but now and then
I get a green yolk. Same thing when I simmer for 10 min and then cool. The
real clincher was when I cooked 4 eggs from the same carton together, cooled
them together, and three were without a trace of green and the fourth had
very bad green on the yolk. How can you blame this on cooking time or
cooling speed?


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.