Foolproof hard-boiled eggs from The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science (page 102) by J. Kenji López-Alt

  • eggs

Where’s the full recipe - why can I only see the ingredients?

Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • Potawatomus on February 10, 2026

    These turned out amazing. I’ve never used the ice cube method. These did turn out perfect.

  • Potawatomus on February 10, 2026

    These turned out amazing. I’ve never used the ice cube method. These did turn out perfect.

  • Ishie1013 on February 07, 2024

    This is similar to the technique I already used, but it was nice to have it backed by science, and the timing with the pictures of the eggs laid out REALLY helped. Made the 7 minute eggs for breakfast and they came out perfectly and peeled easily.

  • Karen_S. on November 28, 2018

    Every egg peeled easily and perfectly.

  • rionafaith on November 29, 2016

    I've always started my eggs in cold water, but I decided to try this method after Kenji's vigorous testing. Okay, so it's not totally perfect -- after adding the ice, it took ages to come back to boiling again, and never really did because I got impatient and decided to just start timing from when I hit the simmering temp (I used a candy/deep fry thermometer in my water to monitor it). And my first two eggs still had varying degrees of craters... the other 4 peeled perfectly cleanly, however, far better than usual! The eggs were all perfectly cooked and still tender, too.

  • mllamas on January 03, 2016

    First time I've ver been able to cleanly peel every egg.

  • Emily Hope on November 09, 2015

    Although for a hard-boiled egg recipe this is pretty fiddly, it totally delivered on the promise of easy to peel eggs. After five minutes of shelling I had 6 beautiful eggs with nary a dent.

You must Create an Account or Sign In to add a note to this book.

Reviews about this recipe

This recipe does not currently have any reviews.

You are reporting a broken online recipe link to EYB. Please confirm that you want the report submitted. Please also suggest the correct URL for this online recipe to the below textbox.