[Sca-cooks] **OOP** Hard Cooking Eggs

[Laura L]

**NOTE** I seriously believe that these methods were NOT used in period, but
if anyone has any knowledge otherwise, I would *love* to hear it!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share something:

In Alton Brown's cookbook "I'm Just Here for the Food" he has 2 ways of hard
cooking eggs other than boiling them...I have tried both methods, and they
both work, but here are my comments on them:
**note: for all transferal of eggs, I use scalloped tongs, YMMV**

Method 1: steaming: put 1/2 inch or so of water in pot, place steamer insert
in pot, bring water to a boil, put as many eggs in as you want/will fit in
the pot, put lid on pot, turn down to simmer, cook for 12 minutes, remove
eggs to ice water bath (I use tongs).

This produces eggs virtually indistinguishable from boiled eggs except for 2
things: 1) they seem to be a bit less rubbery in texture, 2) none of them
got the nasty green ring that I *always* seem to get when I boil eggs (yay!)

Method 2: Baking: Place oven racks in center of oven. Preheat oven to 375
deg F. Place eggs directly on racks (obviously this won't work for really
small eggs). put as many eggs as you can fit or want to bake. Place a baking
sheet under the eggs in case one breaks (I've done this 2 times for a total
of 3 dozen eggs, and have only broken one after it was cooked enough not to
leak, but better to be safe than have to clean it!). Bake for 30 minutes;
remove to bowl of ice water.

This method produces eggs that are slightly "funky" in that steam or water
doesn't wash away the albumin that gets pushed out the pores of the egg, so
they get caramelized bumps on them. Other kind of funky things: 1) the
whites are sort of layered, 2) there is often a yellowish "spot" on the
surface of the white, 3) the air pocket is almost always at the large end of
the egg, 4) no green ring 5) I like the texture of these the best... the
whites are kind of creamy and the yolks are not at all grainy.

I will admit that I do NOT have a oven thermometer, so it's possible that
with better temperature control, the layered effect and the yellow spot
would be eliminated. I also used cheap eggs from Costco (3 dozen for $2) I
was making them for egg salad and straight up eating by my family, so
appearance wasn't that big a deal.

If you are going for sheer quantity and the ability to walk away from it and
do something else, I prefer the oven If presentation will be an issue (say
for a stuffed egg dish), steaming would probably be the better option.

**another note: I LOVE ALTON BROWN! This cookbook is *super* and it reads
just like his shows, with lots of cool explanations about food science and
great analogies. It is, however, centered on cooking techniques for "whole
food" kinds of things (like various cuts of meat and veggies) and almost
nothing on "compound food" like cakes and casseroles. I got it at CostCo for
$16.. IMO, well worth the dough. ^_^

Laura L.
AIM: thalionar, ICQ: 13239593
"Water is the epitome of funky liquids"
     --Brian L
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/water/chemistryproperties.html