Boiling eggs . . . easy, No?

So yesterday was "graduation day" for my husband and I from the CPEO class that we have been taking once a week for the last 7 weeks at my son's school. It was a class offered by Minneapolis Public Schools and designed to "Connect Parents to Educational Opportunities" for their children. All in all my husband and I felt that the class was good, though as it almost always goes, those parent's who could have truly benefited from the information weren't there.
We didn't really learn much that was new, but it kept up our motivation to continue to be highly involved in the education of our children and to help prepare them for college. And I must say, it is quite heartwarming to hear your 4 year old shout out "I'm going to college!" in an auditorium full of parents just at the break in the speaker's speech :) So with it being our last class, we were asked to participate in a potluck. If you know me at all, then you know exactly what I brought. Deviled eggs.

Deviled eggs were something that was always made for holidays and special occasions in my home growing up, and they were one of those foods that everyone looked forward to. (They rank right up there with turkey and stuffing.) I am not exactly sure when the tradition began, but I happily keep it going :)

Now when it comes down to making these "little bites of yum", (pretty much what I call anything yummy that can be devoured in a bite or two), there are TONS of different ways. I will generally enjoy almost any, except those made with sugar. Yuck! (sorry Great Grandma-in law) But now what I find is a must in any good deviled egg recipe, is properly boiled eggs.


I was taught to boil eggs by just putting as many as you need into boiling water and guesstimating the cook time. But I couldn't help noticing that all of the yoke centers always came out looking greenish gray on the outside and not bright sunny yellow like the ones I saw in magazines, cookbooks, etc. So that sent me on a quest to find an answer. What I found, is that my (and my Mom's, and whoever taught her) method for egg boiling was causing the unfavorable discoloration in our yolks. So yesterday I tried a new method and sure enough, my yolks were perfect! Not only was there no discoloration, but I found the yolks to be more creamy and a dream to pipe through my Wilton's icing tips. So what was the method? I got my instructions from the egg experts at www.IncredibleEdibleEgg.org .

To get started, put as many eggs as you want or can fit in a single layer on the bottom of a pan or pot. Put the pan in the sink. Run water into the pan until the water is 1 inch over the eggs. Put the pan on a burner. Turn it to medium-high heat.

Let the water come to a boil. Put the lid on the pan when the water is boiling. Move the pan onto a cold burner. Set the timer for 15 minutes for Large-sized eggs (or for 12 minutes for Medium-sized eggs or for 18 minutes for Extra Large-sized eggs).

Put the pan in the sink when the time is over. Run cold water into the pan until the eggs are cool. Put the eggs into the refrigerator if you're going to use them later or peel them if you're going to use them right away. Be sure to use all the cooked eggs up before a week is over.

Here's a couple helpful hints:

When I know I am going to be needing to boil up a bunch of eggs, I buy my eggs in advance and let them sit in the fridge for a week (but no longer then 10 days) before I cook them. The reason for this is that I have found it much easier to peel aged eggs then ones fresh from the market. If you want nice centered yolks, you will not want to use eggs older then 10 days, otherwise the whites will thin out too much and cause the yolk to move around. If you find yourself not able to use older eggs, you can always use this nifty egg peeling method :)


Don't have an egg carrier and worried about your eggs slipping around during transport? Just put a layer of matchstick carrots on the bottom of a baking dish and place the eggs on top. They add great color and help your eggs to stay put!