Steamed Hard Boiled Eggs

10 minute steamed eggs

A recent Cooks Magazine article discussed a new technique for making soft and hard boiled eggs.  Instead of boiling the eggs in a pot of water, you put 1/2" of water in the pot and when it comes to a boil you add the eggs, cover and "steam"  6-1/2 minutes for soft boiled eggs.  It tried it and it works.    When I added the eggs to the pot, a couple of the shells cracked so I wondered how I could prevent the cracking. 

Since the eggs cook by steaming rather than boilding, I though I could try steaming them in a double boiler with an steaming basket so the eggs don't touch the water at all.  The logic behind the steaming method is that adding eggs to boiling water changes the temperature of the water and makes the timing more difficult.  With steam, regardless of the number of eggs you add, the water temperature should stay stable and the steam should be constant and therefore the timing can be more consistent.

Katie wanted hard boiled eggs so we tried steaming it for 10 minutes and this is the result.  After 10 minutes, put the eggs into a bowl of cold water and crack the shells all over to let the cold water seep inside.  After an hour or so when the eggs have cooled, they should peel fairly easily.  If you are making deviled eggs, you may want to increase the steaming time to 12 minutes so that you have right consistency to mash the egg yolks.