Methods of Preparing Hard Cooked Eggs

AN EGG hard cooked in shell should rate high in the following criteria: 1) shell does not break during cooking, 2) shell peels off easily and does not adhere to the coagulated egg albumen, and 3) the yolk should be well centered and free of any dark ring. Several factors can influence how well hard-cooked eggs can meet these criteria, i.e., temperature of the egg, pH of albumen, temperature of the heating medium, length of cooking period, strength of shell and quality of the egg. The cooking procedure required to give optimum results for one criterion may not produce optimum results when judged by another criterion. The quality of eggs available for home use has been improving. However, extremely fresh eggs seem to be associated with an increased difficulty in the removal of shells from hard-cooked eggs. Higher quality eggs, now frequently preserved by an oil spray treatment, have thicker…