Egg timer

How long do you boil an egg?

From water already at a rolling boil, with large eggs straight from the fridge: three minutes gives a runny yolk and a barely-set white, five is jammy, seven is soft-set but still tender, ten is classic hard boiled, and twelve is firm all the way through. The presets on this page are labelled with those outcomes rather than left as bare minute counts, because the number was never the thing you wanted to choose.

Start the clock when the water returns to a proper boil after the eggs go in, not when you drop them. That gap is thirty to sixty seconds and it is the main reason the same timing gives different results on different days.

Do the times change for egg size or altitude?

Yes to both. Medium eggs come out about thirty to forty-five seconds sooner than large, and extra-large need up to a minute more. At altitude water boils below 100°C, so the heat driving the cooking is lower: add roughly thirty seconds per 1,000 feet above about 3,000. Eggs going in at room temperature rather than fridge cold also shave time off.

Why do my hard boiled eggs have a green ring?

Iron in the yolk reacting with sulphur in the white, which happens when eggs cook too long or cool too slowly. It is harmless and it tastes slightly of sulphur. Staying at ten to twelve minutes rather than fifteen prevents most of it, and moving the eggs straight into ice water stops the carryover cooking that causes the rest.

How do I make eggs easier to peel?

Two things do most of the work: starting them in boiling water rather than bringing them up from cold, and an ice bath the moment they come out. Both encourage the membrane to separate from the white. Older eggs peel more easily than very fresh ones, which is the one variable a timer cannot help with.