As a relatively recent convert to steaming I can only tell you what I do. A lot of guidelines say 12 minutes but I find that gets them done a little less than I want, so I go 13 or so and the center of the yolk can still be a bit darker, perhaps it's when I use extra large, not sure. 14 would probably guarantee good results, but then for deviled eggs it's probably not critical. I just cool in cold tap water as I'm not big on wasting ice. No need to peel right away, my Easter eggs peeled fine all week. Can't answer the questions about deviled eggs as I've made them like once or so and don't remember. I'd stuff them as you wish and throw any leftover whites in my next salad.

For me, the critical point is to peel them right away, as soon as you take them from the ice bath. They should stay in the ice bath for 15 minutes.

Once I put some in the fridge to peel the next day, and it was close to impossible to get the shells off.

The method I learned and find almost foolproof for easily peeled hardboiled eggs is to place the eggs in a saucepan deep enough to cover them with 1 inch of cold water. Bring to a rapid boil, then turn off the heat and allow to sit in place for 10 minutes. Then drain and place in an ice bath until the eggs have fully cooled. You can peel then or store in frig until needed. Rarely will I have an issue with peeling and never any gray yolk rings.

I am probably not a good one to ask about deviled eggs as I use lots of add-ins, mostly seasonings. And definitely something to give them some zing - horseradish or cayenne or Tabasco. And always Dijon mustard, never the yellow stuff (which I won't have in the house!!)

Six eggs will make 12 devilled eggs for me with plenty of filling. Sometimes it is piled quite high :-) Never had any need to toss any 'extra' white.

Here's a video on hard boiled eggs, and the take-away I got from this is how to crack the eggs, although I have not yet tried this method.

Skip to @2:25 in this video to see how he cracks the first egg. He only taps the egg on its side (I have always tapped the ends in the past), and then he rolls the egg on the board, creating more cracks. I have a feeling that the rolling on the board is what makes the difference, if only because I have not done this yet! Anyway, I will be trying it the next time I boil eggs.

I'm not fond of eggs, but I do add them to a lot of things that I make.

I steam as elmer suggests only I do mine for 12 min. I keep the bowl full of water and ice nearby and plunge immediately. Also the fresher and more organic the eggs, the harder they are to peel.

For egg salad, I use my pastry blender to chop the eggs and then add finely chopped celery and mayo, S&P to taste.

Never steamed eggs, because I have my own method that works very well for me. I make about 1/2 dozen hard-cooked eggs weekly, for salad, etc.

I've shared it on these forums before - here's what I do:

Cover eggs with water - not hot, but our cold water here in FL isn't that cold - more like tepid. Bring to a boil, gently stir them around a bit, then lower the heat slightly to a simmer and simmer for 9 minutes. Drain, then shake the pan until shells are cracked all over, then cover with cold/tepid water and refrigerate until cold, after that they can be removed from the water and stored in a closed container. Sometimes most of the shell comes off of some of the eggs while I'm shaking the pan.

Eggshells are porous, so IME, keeping them submerged prevents the membrane under the shells from drying out and sticking, so I don't let them dry out . I also roll the eggs on the counter or between my hands to further loosen the shells before peeling, and I use a spoon with a thin edge to get under and pry off the shells of any stubborn ones.

I have an old-school electric stove. I realize gas can take longer to cook. And I agree, if there's a greenish ring, those eggs were most likely overcooked.

I do none of the above. I eat one egg every day year round and I bring a dozen and a half in cold cold water to a boil and turn the gas off and let them stand till I can reach in and pull them out with my bare hand. Nine out of ten times I can easily peel them. Sometimes there is a dark ring but I don't care.

I now use the intant pot to cook them. The pressure does something to the shells and they come right off. 5 minutes high pressure cooking, 5 minutes letting the pressure release on it's own, and 5 minutes in ice cold water (with ice cubes). They come out the same everytime now. No overcooking or undercooking and the shells never stick. I do peel them right away.

Before that it was hit or miss. Boil eggs in pot. When the water got to boiling good, turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 20 minutes. The cooking was always the same and usually the shells came off easily but not always.

I do not own an Instapot, I do not need it. I use a small tray thing I bought at Publix. It fits a small to large pot. Put water to the bottom of the tray, eggs in the tray, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes for Publix Jumbo eggs. Drain, cool in cold water, and peel. They always work, new, old or inbetween.

ETA: I tried to post a photo, it will not post. Publix calls it a steamer basket.

I do basically what Gardengal said: Inch of cold water covering, brought to rapid boil over high heat but I leave them in the turned off covered pot for 12 min not 10. I might be overdoing it, but I don't get the rings around the yolks.

I had to learn. My SIL was having a luncheon one day and I asked her what I could do to help her. She asked for deviled eggs which I'd made infrequently. To me, they are almost like like cookies which I don't really enjoy making either. Assign me a dish of any kind to make, not a few dozen little individual things ;)

Not wanting to disappoint, I was off to see how Barefoot Contessa does them and came up with that method. Additives always and seasoned to taste. I like a bit of lemon juice, finely minced chives in them too.

Never use new eggs. Mine are always at least a week old and often older. I bring the water to a rolling boil, turn the heat off and set the timer for 9-10 minutes. Run under cold water and refrigerate. Always perfect and easy to peel.

I have an egg cooker, but rarely use it.

90%? I've been 100% since steaming, and only ever crack when ready to use but each to his own!

I got the following from a caterer years ago and have used the 12-minute simmer ever since. I usually just put the eggs in ice water after they’re done cooking.

For Boiling:

Bring eggs to room temperature (if you have not “planned ahead” place the eggs in a bowl of tepid water until they reach room temperature).

Bring a generous amount of water to a boil in a saucepan large enough to hold the eggs comfortably (do not cook more than 18 eggs at one time).

Gently lower the eggs into the boiling water (adding the eggs will cause the water to stop boiling).

When the water returns to a boil, lower the heat and gently simmer the eggs for exactly 12 minutes. (Very hard boiling may crack shells.)

For Easy Peeling:

Pour the eggs and their cooking water into a colander to drain.

Immediately run cold water over the eggs to stop cooking.

Crack the egg shells all over (against the side of the sink) while constantly running the cold water over the eggs.

Once the shells are cracked all over, you can peel them immediately, or wait to peel them until you are ready to do so. (Refrigerate the eggs if you wish to store them for longer than an hour or so.)

Peels should slip off easily.

Store peeled eggs: Peeled hard boiled eggs can be stored in the refrigerator in a sealed container (cover the eggs with damp paper towels) for about a week.

Store eggs in the shell: Hard-boiled eggs in their shells can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks

TIP FOR DEVILED EGGS:

To center yolks perfectly in anticipation of making deviled eggs: place a rubber band around the carton of eggs, and set the carton on its side in the refrigerator for 24 hours before hard boiling the eggs. Yolks will be centered.

I use an egg cooker, so won't say how to steam or cook them in a pot. We do a lot of soft and hard boiled eggs, so the cooker is easy for us. I will say making sauna eggs in the instant pot makes spectacular deviled eggs- but most folks don't want to take hours to make suana eggs.

I've peeled after fresh chilled and often leave a bowl of hard boiled in the fridge to peel one or few as we want- I've not noted a huge difference in peeling difficulty. I tend to be a crack the side and roll the egg to loosen the shell person.

Only time I've added white to the yolks is if I accidently cut or damaged the white so I can't use to fill. Otherwise by the time you add in a smidge of mustard, mayo, ect and pipe it back into the egg, there's always more filling than the yolk that came out of the egg. I use the ziplock bag trick for the filling. Put it all in a ziplock to mix/mash it up, snip off a corner to pipe the mix into the whites.

What to add to the yolks? Dang near anything. Mayo of various types, mustards, horseradish or wasabi, hot sauce- ranch dressing or powdered ranch dressing. Italian dressing or vinagrette. Vinegar- white, malt, or champagne are good. Almost any brine from your pickles, olives, ect can be a good zing to add. Soy, ginger, and sesame oil can make asian, some guac or salsa can make a mex- extra good with a big crumble of queso on top. Minced capers, pickles, onions, celery, roasted garlic. Some like pimentos. Curry powder, cajun spices, dill, lemon-pepper, paprika, steak or BBQ seasonings. A spring of almost any fresh herb or some edible flowers to complement the seasonings can be pretty and tasty. A piece of bacon, bit of smoked salmon, or a salad shrimp can all be nice egg toppers too.

I'm going to try Carol's method of cracking the shells in the pan by swirling them around and keeping them submerged after cracking.

Wow, so many ways to boil an egg! I will try the steaming method and let you know how i do. Family are coming in for a life celebration of my mother and a couple of them requested deviled eggs. Almost everything else is coming from the caterer!

What a bunch of good eggs you are.

This works 100% of the time. Age of eggs does not matter. You want them straight from the 'fridge.. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Once water is boiling put eggs in one at a time with a slotted spoon. Bring back to boil. Take off heat. Let set for half hour. Cool before handling. They will peel perfectly. When you put cold eggs in boiling water they shrink away from the membrane that fights peeling.

I steam mine in a $15 egg cooker, but have boiled. Nothing exciting in the difference other than having to handle wet eggs. I learned about not using fresh from the chicken eggs in previous threads here, but even at a couple weeks since buying (fresh, pastured eggs) they were still hard to peel.

Easy peeling: No cold water! Adjust time so they don't overcook in residual heat. Place them on something massy, like the counter, or a heavy, empty pot, with at least an inch between—someplace clean and away from animals, etc. Leave overnight/eight hours. Then into the fridge or use. About one in a hundred doesn't peel super easily, but even that is a lot better than the fresest egg, cool fast nightmare method.

I've tried Arcy's method in the past, but I let the eggs sit for 20 minutes instead of half an hour.

I haven't done it this way in a long time, but I used to do it this way all the time years ago.

It's been months since I have made a hard boiled egg. As I said, I only make them when I want to use them in a salad of some sort, such as deviled ham or potato salad or tuna salad. I also use them when I make Crab Louis and Cobb Salad, but I more often get Cobb Salad at a restaurant, partly because I like to have bacon in it, and DB won't eat bacon, except for turkey bacon.

I think this is great. So many ways to do it and we are all happy!

I've been steaming them for years, ever since something weird started happening when I boiled them and the peels became almost impossible to remove. I had never had that problem back in the day. I suspect it has something to do with how the chickens are fed or with how the eggs are handled now that they didn't use to do? I don't know, but steaming them fixed the problem! I just saw a video that you can air fry them also, supposedly the peels come right off with that method too. I don't have an air fryer though, those that do can give that a try! Plenty of videos on line to show you how, temp and time that is.

Lot's of different ways to do it and we all have our favorites, so I won't add mine - it's the same as has been posted by a few people.

I solved the left over white problem like this: I use my food processor to mash up the yolks (I'm always making 3 doz (6 dozen halves) or so for potlucks), so I just throw the extra whites and any misshapen ones that can't be stuffed, into the processor with the yolks, mayo mustard, etc and whirl until the whites disappear. You can't tell they are there, it stretches the yolks and uses the extra whites.

I have used an egg cooker for more than 60 years! First one lasted for 50 years - think it was a Sunbeam - and finally gave it away when I bought a new one. The new one can cook 10 or 11 eggs at a time. From super soft to hard cooked, depending on the amount of water. Poke a hole in the top of the egg, put in cooker, add water following the directions on the little water pitcher and turn it on. It beeps when done. Eggs are perfect every time and the shells on hard cooked almost falls off. I am the deviled egg queen of the garden club pot luck lunches! lol My uncle had a chicken market and chickens and eggs were plentiful. My aunt gave every niece and nephew an egg cooker when they got married.

Best is, you make the hard cooked and they can sit for hours and still be perfect and the shells still fall off. It is a small cheap appliance and works like a charm. The last ones I bought - for gifts - from Amazon.

I could almost ditto spswash comments. I had a Sunbeam egg cooker for years, till it died. I purchased the Oxo one from the big river and it is a great timesaver. I usually eat hard boiled eggs for breakfast every morning. I try to have the steamer ready when we sit down for breakfast and it is done before I'm through loading the DW. I do 10 eggs at a time and it doesn't matter how fresh they are-peeling is a breeze. And i just peel 2 a day and don't need to crack them ahead of time. I do immediately put them in a bowl of ice water to chill as soon as they are finished steaming and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Both of my daughters wanted one as soon as they saw mine. They make great gifts!

Eggs straight from the chicken have a protective coating which helps preserve themw ithout refrigeration, but commercial sellers wash that off before packaging. That coating keeps the eggs from losing moisture. You will notice that "old" eggs have a larger airspace at one than new eggs, because they have lost moisture. And it's that loss of moisture that allows the eggs to peel more easily.

I add a good splash of vinegar to my boiling water as well as a good amount of salt. The vinegar etches the shell a bit and allows the salty water to draw out moisture ( remember osmosis?). Timing the cooking of eggs is tricky. Depends on the number of eggs, the amount of water and how cold the eggs are when you put them into the water. My "rule of thumb" is to bring a large enough pot of water to hold the number of eggs I am making, to a rolling boil ( salt and vinegar added) and gently drop in the eggs and cook for 10 minutes after the water returns to a boil. Then immediately carry the pan to the sink and run cold water until the eggs are no longer warm, crack while in the water. I just bang against the sides of the pan, and they will peel themselves.

Remember to puncture the big end with a pin before you drop into the water to insure they don't crack.

Devilled eggs have mayonaise, mustard ( dijon, common yellow or grainy german) some onion powder or chopped chives in season....and what ever else floats my boat at the time....chopped olives, capers, fresh parsley, horseradish....whatever. and top with paprika...or a bit of ancho chili powder!

Have you ever tried the muffin tin method. one egg per cavity [no water] ... oven 325 degrees for 20-30 minutes [depends upon how done you want your yolk] ... remove from oven and rinse in cool water a bit. peel when cooled. Takes a bit longer, but if you are busy doing other stuff, you won't notice it.

Success, i think. I steamed three eggs for 13 minutes

, plunged them in ice water, let them cool for awhile, peeled with ease, scraped the yolks out ( only one fought a little) mixed up some mayo and yellow mustard with the yolks and now they are sitting in the fridge to cool a bit more before the taste test.

Perfectly peeld egg!

Look how the peel came off in nearly one piece!

Pretty yolks. No ring.

Finished egg picture coming up. i hope they taste good. I think i could have made the filling a tiny bit creamier but didnt want to go overboard. I also didnt take the time to make them look fancier since this is a trial run.

Woohoo looks good!

Great. The yolks are bright yellow and perfectly cooked. Apparently, the success from using steam or rapidly boiling water is because doing so first cooks the part of the egg against the shell immediately and that causes it to separate from the shell (as explained by Kenji).

We use this little egg steamer. I never mastered boiling eggs in a manner that they are easy to peel. You poke a little hole in the skinny end of the shell and steam them in here. I think they come out easy to peel bc some water vapor makes it's way underneath the shell. Uses less water too.

I still need to work on the filling. Not enough zing. A little more mustard, i think. Not bad though.

Congrats! Try some paprika for the classic ”deviled” zing and look. Just don't stir in completly lest the filling turn pink.

Just steaming/boiling isn't enough to make eggs easy to peel. Voice of experience. I think most eggs have more time in storage and transit than the ones I get through the farm box. Older eggs are easier to peel.

Poking a hole in the shell helps as well, I believe.

carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b

The little plastic measuring cup that came with the steamer has a poker in the bottom of it. Then you stand the eggs up on the tray with the poked end pointing up. They come out perfect every time.

I mash the yolks with just a little mustard, mayonaise, and paprika and then stir in a good amount of Del Monte Sweet Pickle Relish. Theyre too bland without the Del Monte. Dont use dill pickle relish.

@sheilajoyce_gw, I always add a little sweet pickle relish to mine, too.

Maybe sweet pickle juice? My family doesnt like bits in the eggs.

There is science in peeling eggs. The egg has two membranes, one ideally stays with the shell and the other sticks to the egg. You want to get between those two membranes. A not so fresh egg tends to peel easier as the outer membrane will adhere to the shell better. I crack the egg all over and use a small spoon to slide between the layers as I either keep the egg in the water or hold under a slow stream of water if the shell is sticky. I use the water to push the shell away from the egg. You can see the membrane on the egg shell.

I have noticed a double layer, but didn't realize that was normal. would think, ideally, you'd want to get both membranes off...?

At least, that's what I do.

DED: add a splash of vinegar to the deviled egg mix with the mayo and mustard ... i like to add wasabi ... sprinkle with paprika

I don't like sweet on eggs (plus, I seldom have sweet pickles), so always add some dill pickle juice to my yolks. I do like wasabi, but when taking to a potluck where I might not be able to warn people who don't like it, I don't add it. If I'm going to a house party where I know most everyone, it seems to be well received.

“Maybe sweet pickle juice?”

Pickle juice will work (as suggested) or a little bit or apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar. The mustard helps with zing, but I always want a little more. Some sweet pickle relish is pretty much mandatory for our family.

Am I the only one who has never heard of steaming eggs? I just put them in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 8 minutes then let sit for 10 minutes. I peel them under cold running water and never have any problem with dark rings or egg

whites falling apart.

I grew up learning to cover eggs with water and bring to a boil, but peeling was never a sure thing. DH wanted some deviled eggs and some hard cooked eggs to snack on -- it has been so long since i'd cooked them that I needed to double check the timing. That's when I was the steaming and have been doing it ever since. Uses less water, is faster and the peeling results are dependable.

Great job, Ded!

I used to have it down, but now rarely make them. Tell me that they are healthy for me, esp deviled and with mayo ;-)

I read someplace that to get a super clean cut, use simple unflavored thin dental floss or monofilament.

Now I am craving deviled eggs.