[2 - 2] hey everyone it's Kenji and uh I'm going
[2 - 5] to show you how to boil eggs and I mean
[5 - 7] boil them in a way that they can be
[7 - 8] peeled and when I say I'm going to show
[9 - 10] you this I know a lot of people say
[10 - 12] here's this foolproof method for doing
[12 - 14] it um every one of them is lying there's
[14 - 15] no such thing as a foolproof method
[15 - 17] you're always going to have eggs that um
[17 - 19] stick the shells that stick no matter
[19 - 22] what method you use but I can say with
[22 - 24] confidence that nobody has done more
[24 - 26] tests on this than I have and this is
[26 - 29] the technique I use that has um the best
[29 - 30] results and I'm not just saying that I
[30 - 31] actually have like the data to back it
[31 - 33] up um I'll show you what I'm doing and
[33 - 35] then I'll explain how I got this result
[35 - 36] um all right so I got some water in a
[36 - 38] saucepan um I usually do to my walk but
[38 - 40] my walk has some oil in it right now um
[40 - 41] the reason I like to use a walk is
[41 - 43] because you can gently put the eggs in
[43 - 45] down the sloped side um and then kind of
[45 - 46] roll into the bottom instead of having
[46 - 47] to kind of drop them in and risk
[47 - 50] cracking them but anyhow um a saucepan
[50 - 52] or a walk whatever vessel you have with
[52 - 54] a lid um a little bit of water doesn't
[54 - 55] even have to cover the eggs you just
[55 - 57] want it enough in there that it'll steam
[57 - 59] continuously over the cooking time so an
[59 - 61] inch or so of water um already
[61 - 63] boiling and I'm just going to lower my
[63 - 65] eggs in these are straight from the
[65 - 68] fridge um because realistically whoever
[68 - 69] plans you know who thinks to themselves
[69 - 71] I want a hard-boiled egg and then pulls
[71 - 72] their egg out from the fridge and waits
[72 - 74] half an hour for their egg to come up to
[74 - 76] room temperature but anyhow this method
[76 - 78] will work for as many eggs as you can
[78 - 80] fit in a single layer in your pan or if
[80 - 82] you've got a real powerful burn powerful
[82 - 83] burner like at a restaurant for instance
[83 - 85] you could fit more than one one row of
[85 - 87] eggs um but I'm going to do one row row
[87 - 90] of eggs here get it in there keep it out
[90 - 92] of boil cover it up um and now I'm just
[92 - 95] going to set a timer uh Hey Siri set a
[97 - 100] minutes 9 minutes starting now all right
[100 - 102] so 9 minutes will give you like a nice
[102 - 104] hard-boiled egg where the yolk is still
[104 - 106] kind of golden um you know 11 12 minutes
[106 - 107] will get you one where the yolk is a
[107 - 109] little bit more pale yellow and chalkier
[109 - 110] something like 6 minutes will give you a
[110 - 112] medium like a sort of fudgy egg and
[112 - 113] something like 3 or 4 minutes will'll
[114 - 116] get you a soft boiled egg um so when I
[116 - 120] used to work um as a cook a lunch cook
[120 - 121] at a restaurant um one of my very first
[121 - 124] restaurant jobs um we had a I remember
[124 - 127] we had a dish where it was um asparagus
[127 - 129] with a soft cooked egg a 3-minute boiled
[129 - 131] egg that had to be peeled and my job was
[131 - 132] to boil the eggs and peel them and
[132 - 135] peeling a 3-minute egg is really a pain
[135 - 137] in the butt especially if the shell
[137 - 138] start to stick and I had a success rate
[139 - 142] maybe I don't know maybe 50% if I was
[142 - 145] lucky um because they had to be perfect
[145 - 147] um and so that was when I sort of
[147 - 149] started thinking all right like how do I
[149 - 150] what what's the best way to really um
[150 - 152] cook an egg so that the shell doesn't
[152 - 153] stick and I always just thought it was
[153 - 155] sort of luck of the draw um and then you
[155 - 156] know several years later when I was
[156 - 157] working at serious seats I was like okay
[157 - 159] I'm going to start testing this um so I
[159 - 161] tested a number of different methods um
[161 - 163] I used I did things you know like adding
[163 - 165] vinegar to the water salting the water
[165 - 167] um starting the eggs in cold water and
[167 - 169] bringing it up starting them in in
[169 - 170] boiling water all the different things
[170 - 173] you could think of um and what I found
[173 - 175] um was that when I got a panel of people
[175 - 176] together to come you know everyone who
[176 - 177] worked at series SE of the time so it's
[177 - 179] probably like I think 8 to 10 people um
[179 - 181] we we sat around cooked eggs I cooked
[182 - 183] eggs a bunch of ways and then they
[183 - 186] peeled them um and reported how easy and
[186 - 187] difficult they were to peel I also sort
[187 - 188] of examin them to see how well they
[188 - 190] peeled um and what I discovered was the
[190 - 191] real the thing that the thing that makes
[191 - 195] the most Difference by far um is not the
[195 - 196] age of the egg in fact the age of the
[196 - 198] egg doesn't really matter that much
[198 - 199] despite what you've read and despite
[199 - 200] even what I may have written in the past
[200 - 202] the age of the egg doesn't actually
[202 - 204] matter that much what really matters is
[204 - 205] whether you start them in already
[205 - 207] boiling water or you or you bring them
[207 - 209] up from cold if you put them in cold
[209 - 211] water it up and bring it up the egg
[211 - 213] whites will actually fuse to the Shell
[213 - 214] that membrane on the shell becomes much
[214 - 216] more difficult to peel you lower them
[216 - 218] into already boiling water on the other
[218 - 220] hand um and the egg whites set up fast
[220 - 221] enough that they don't actually fuse to
[221 - 223] that shell and they come and they peel
[223 - 225] much more easily um a few years after
[225 - 226] that this was just a couple years ago
[226 - 227] now when I was um you know I had my
[228 - 230] restaurant worst Hall in Sano and
[230 - 232] deviled eggs have been on the menu since
[232 - 233] day one one of the most popular dishes
[233 - 236] there and so we would boil um you know
[236 - 239] 100 200 eggs every single day um and
[239 - 240] what I decided to do is when I was work
[241 - 242] when I had my New York Times column well
[242 - 243] I still have my New York Times column
[243 - 245] but one one of my New York Times columns
[245 - 246] I thought all right you know I'm going
[246 - 248] to re repeat some of those tests I did
[248 - 250] for serious eats um but I'm going to do
[250 - 252] I'm just going to get as much data as
[252 - 254] possible so I got volunteers people from
[254 - 257] the public um over 100 people to come to
[257 - 260] the restaurant um peel eggs blind so
[260 - 261] they didn't know how the eggs were
[261 - 263] cooked they didn't know um what method I
[263 - 264] used to cook them they didn't know how
[264 - 265] old the eggs were anything like that um
[265 - 268] so I had each person peel a dozen eggs
[268 - 270] um that were cooked in various methods
[270 - 272] um and then I had them both rank how
[272 - 274] easy it was to peel so there was there
[274 - 275] was different sets of data I had them
[276 - 278] tell um subjectively rank how easy the
[278 - 280] eggs were to peel on a scale from 1 to
[280 - 283] 10 um I examined every egg to see how
[283 - 285] many uh flaws it had so I counted both
[285 - 287] sort of minor flaws little little divots
[287 - 289] in it um and also sort of major flaws
[289 - 291] like cracks and big um big divots uh and
[291 - 294] then I also timed how long it took
[294 - 296] people to peel each egg on average and
[296 - 298] getting collecting all that data I came
[298 - 300] to this to the exact same conclusion the
[300 - 302] thing that matters most is whether the
[302 - 304] egg starts in hot water um or whether it
[304 - 306] starts in cold water so starting your
[306 - 309] egg in hot water again there's no 100%
[309 - 310] guarantee that every single egg is going
[310 - 313] to peel perfectly but um in those tests
[313 - 315] we ended up with around um you know
[315 - 316] people who have peeled lots of eggs in
[316 - 318] their life people never peeled eggs
[318 - 319] before in their life on average people
[319 - 322] were able to get about a 80% or so
[322 - 324] success rate um as opposed to sort of
[324 - 327] like a 50 to 60% success rate um using
[327 - 329] other cooking methods and by success I
[329 - 331] mean having an egg that peels easily and
[331 - 332] perfectly with no blemishes the shell
[332 - 334] comes off um and you have that entire
[334 - 336] white makes it perfect for a double dagg
[336 - 340] or whatever um so yeah that is that is
[340 - 341] that um the only other thing that you
[341 - 343] really want to consider when you're uh
[343 - 345] boiling eggs is that some eggs uh you
[345 - 347] know I I happen to know you know I get
[347 - 349] these eggs or I get the ones from the
[349 - 352] brand called happy egg um from my local
[352 - 354] Safeway um I know that these eggs have
[354 - 357] particularly thick hard shells um and
[357 - 358] it's very unlikely that they're going to
[358 - 361] break while they're boiling some in some
[361 - 362] places in some brands of eggs in some
[362 - 363] regions of the world you're going to
[363 - 365] find eggs with slightly thinner shells
[365 - 367] um and those do run the risk that the
[367 - 369] pressure inside is going to build up and
[369 - 370] cause the eggshell to crack while
[370 - 372] they're boiling um if that seems to
[372 - 374] happen to you a lot uh what you can do
[374 - 375] is you can take a little you can take a
[375 - 377] thumbtack and just prick a little hole
[377 - 380] uh in the back in the fat end of the egg
[380 - 382] and that will give a um so you know back
[382 - 385] there there's an air space uh that um
[385 - 387] and that's what causes the egg to um uh
[387 - 388] the eggshell to crack is that airspace
[388 - 390] expanding so if you pick a little hole
[390 - 392] in there it gives room for the air to uh
[392 - 394] escape and so you relieve pressure
[394 - 396] inside there uh like kind of like
[396 - 397] pulling a cork out of a champagne bottle
[397 - 399] it relieves pressure um and so your
[399 - 401] eggshell won't crack if you do that um
[401 - 404] the other advantage of that is that uh
[404 - 405] if you don't do that what you end up
[405 - 408] with is sometimes that airspace um will
[408 - 410] leave a sort of indentation on the back
[410 - 411] of the egg I'm sure you've seen that
[411 - 412] before the fat end of the egg has a
[413 - 414] slight indentation that's caused by that
[414 - 416] airspace um so it'll eliminate that as
[416 - 418] well if you if you're concerned about
[418 - 420] that um appearance-wise
[420 - 423] um that airspace by the way is one of
[423 - 426] the few things that will change um with
[426 - 428] the age of the egg um so that air you
[428 - 429] know egg eggshells are porous and so as
[429 - 433] eggs get older um they lose moisture and
[433 - 434] so that air space actually gets bigger
[434 - 435] so the older your egg the bigger that
[435 - 437] air space is going to be and the bigger
[437 - 439] that sort of um indentation on the back
[439 - 442] of a boiled egg is going to be
[442 - 445] um people do say that the age of the egg
[445 - 447] is going to make a difference uh this is
[447 - 450] not true so I I I I've done this test
[450 - 453] both with eggs that were 60 days old um
[453 - 455] that that is um I I know they were 60
[455 - 458] days old because I got them from uh my
[458 - 460] neighbor's hens uh and I compared those
[460 - 462] two eggs that were literally still warm
[462 - 465] from the chicken laid that day same hens
[465 - 468] same eggs um same neighbor uh so the
[468 - 470] exact same eggs and I did a half dozen
[470 - 473] of each uh and the age of the egg really
[473 - 476] made no difference in how easily uh the
[476 - 478] egg peeled um the time when the age of
[478 - 479] an egg does make a difference is if
[479 - 481] you're um doing something like frying an
[481 - 482] egg or poaching an egg because as the
[482 - 484] egg gets older the membrane around the
[484 - 486] egg white and around the egg yolk will
[486 - 489] start to loosen uh and so if you want a
[489 - 491] really perfect nice tall fried egg or
[491 - 493] really tight poached egg um using as
[493 - 495] fresh an egg as possible uh is going to
[495 - 498] help in that regard but for boiled egg
[498 - 500] eggs it really makes no difference okay
[500 - 501] so I'm going to let this go until the
[501 - 503] timer timer goes off and then I will
[503 - 506] show you uh how easy they are to peel
[506 - 508] all right so I'll be back in about a
[508 - 510] minute has done by I guess because I was
[510 - 511] blabbing so much I didn't realize that
[511 - 512] we're almost done with our 9-minute
[513 - 515] timer um all right so these eggs are
[515 - 517] getting ready to come out um you'll
[517 - 519] notice I don't have an ice bath um I
[519 - 521] actually prefer to just let my eggs cool
[521 - 523] down naturally I find it doesn't make a
[523 - 524] huge difference but it actually makes
[524 - 526] them just a teeny bit easier to peel um
[526 - 528] if you want your eggs chilled really
[528 - 529] fast because you're going to store them
[529 - 530] or because you're going to make egg
[530 - 532] salad immediately something like that um
[532 - 533] you can definitely go ahead and just
[534 - 535] drop them in an ice bath um but I'm
[535 - 537] going to let them sit here and then uh
[537 - 539] let them cool down naturally naturally
[539 - 541] as soon as they're done um as for the
[541 - 543] temperature by the way the temperature
[543 - 546] of the boiling hey Siri stop um the
[546 - 547] temperature of the boiling water um the
[547 - 549] heat underneath it you want it just
[549 - 551] enough to basically maintain at the very
[551 - 554] minimum like a heavy simmer um or a very
[554 - 556] light boil uh you don't need it you
[556 - 557] don't need it to be going like full
[557 - 560] blast the entire time um the one thing
[560 - 561] you want to make sure that doesn't
[561 - 563] happen though is that you um you don't
[563 - 566] want the eggs to uh sorry the water to
[566 - 568] completely evaporate away while the eggs
[568 - 569] are boiling cuz that that could be a
[569 - 571] little bit of a disaster um and before
[571 - 573] anyone mentions it yes I've tried that
[573 - 574] method where you put the eggs in a
[575 - 577] muffin tin and bake them in the oven uh
[577 - 580] it is not a good way to do your eggs um
[580 - 582] it makes them very difficult to peel uh
[582 - 584] and it also sort of gives them these
[584 - 586] this weird well baked flavor it's just
[588 - 590] good all right so just to show you I'm
[590 - 593] going to peel this one
[596 - 596] egg and chances are this is going to be
[596 - 598] you know one of those two out of the 10
[598 - 599] that aren't going to peel very well but
[599 - 601] maybe maybe it'll feel perfectly but
[601 - 603] knowing knowing how video works
[603 - 606] especially unedited live video it's
[606 - 607] going to be one of those eggs so cool
[607 - 609] enough just to handle um what I the way
[609 - 611] I do my eggs I crack them a little on
[611 - 613] the fat end crack them a little on the
[613 - 615] top end and then I give them a little
[615 - 618] gentle roll like that
[624 - 624] then the peel should just
[626 - 630] that so you see how easy that is
[630 - 631] perfectly PE and you can see there's a
[631 - 633] little bit of a divot here from where
[633 - 635] that um little indentation there from
[635 - 637] where that air space is but you saw how
[637 - 639] easy that peels um that is something
[639 - 641] that if you are a cook and you make lots
[641 - 642] of deviled eggs you're really going to
[642 - 644] appreciate that I can tell you that I
[644 - 646] wish I had known this when I was a a
[646 - 648] younger cook all right I'm going to cut
[648 - 649] it in half just to show you what a 9
[649 - 651] Minute egg looks
[651 - 655] like okay so pretty much hardboiled but
[655 - 657] still pretty golden on the inside so if
[657 - 658] I let this go for another two minutes
[658 - 660] longer then the whole egg would have
[660 - 663] been sort of this pale yellow color but
[663 - 666] um there you go that is a perfectly
[669 - 671] peeled boiled egg and the rest of this I'm
[671 - 673] boiled egg and the rest of this I'm going to let cool down cuz we're having
[673 - 679] egg salad sandwiches for
[690 - 690] hon sit oh you I don't need this up I
[690 - 691] don't know where shabo is she's probably
[691 - 693] upstairs all right guys gals nonbinary
[693 - 699] Pals I will see you next time bye-bye