I don’t often spend time on here talking about meals (or crafts) that I don’t personally enjoy, but I’m going to make an exception this time to talk about hard-boiled eggs. I can handle eggs, but I’m a scrambled kind of girl. If you can manage to get some cheese in there or maybe mix it up with some grits? Now we’re talking. Eating hard-boiled eggs is…I dunno, not my thing. Just the idea of eating eggs cold on purpose gets my gag reflex a-going.

What a great intro, right? Hope you brought your appetite!

Strangely enough, even though I don’t really enjoy them myself, I have more experience making hard-boiled eggs than just about anything else I’ve written about on this site. And that will probably remain the case unless I suddenly decide to write a post about how to smear cream cheese on your bagel or how to pour a bowl of cereal for your kid. Mr. B is a hard-boiled egg fanatic, and it’s all he ever eats in the morning. I got recruited into making them because he messes it up every time. Granted, this might be a case of “learned helplessness,” but that’s okay. I’ve gotten away with “not being good at” putting gas in my car for years, so I get it. We all have our things we don’t like to do.

Anyway, because I know that the road to perfect hard-boiled eggs is one fraught with obstacles and frustrations, I thought I would share my simple process. If you’ve been having trouble getting “easy peelers” or find that your eggs are often overcooked, you’ll hopefully find something of use here.

Here’s what you’ll need:

– Eggs

– Salt

– A big bowl

This is pretty simple, so I’m confident that you already have your ingredients on hand. Here’s what you do: Put your eggs in the bottom of a pot, fill it with water until the eggs are covered and have (a little) room to move about once the boil starts. You don’t need to fill the water to the top – that’s just going to create more mess and extend the amount of time it takes for the pot to get boiling. Add one tablespoon of salt to the water. I’m not sure why this step is important, but it is. It makes a huge difference when it comes to how easy the eggs are to peel, so don’t forget to ADD THE SALT. Turn a burner up to high, put the pot on there, and wait for the boil. Once the boil begins, I usually monitor the nearest clock. When I figure it’s been about a minute, I snap the burner off, put a lid over the pot, and set a timer for 12 minutes.

While you’re waiting for your eggs, put some ice cubes in your large bowl and fill it about halfway with water. When the timer goes off, transfer the eggs from the pot into the bowl. Then put the bowl in the refrigerator. My husband often keeps his eggs in the bowl for a few days, just fishing out his two-per-morning allotment and peeling as he goes. Sometimes, though, we’ll get energetic and peel all of the eggs in one day. Either way, it works.

One other thing I’ve noticed: Very fresh eggs seem to pose the most difficulty when it comes to peeling. No one wants to eat eggs that are on the precipice of expiring, of course, but if you have the luxury of using eggs that have been in the fridge for a week or so, you’ll see the difference for yourself.