Techinique: Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs

I know what you're probably thinking.... and no, I won't be teaching you how to boil water next.  Although this sounds very basic, a LOT of people (I will not name names) are over-cooking their eggs.  If your yolks have a greenish-gray colour on the edge or there is a strong sulfuric smell - you need to read my instructions!

First, an explanation:  The unpleasant green-gray colour and strong smell is from the reaction of the iron in the egg yolk to the sulfur in the egg white from over-cooking.  This won't make you sick, but it doesn't look or smell very nice, and it can easily be avoided!

Step 1:
Gently place your eggs in a pot and cover with cold water.  Add 1/2 tsp of salt.  Adding salt helps prevent the shells from cracking during cooking.

Step 2:
Place on a stove top and bring water to boil.  Don't go too far away!  The water should only take a few minutes to boil.

Step 3:
As soon as the water begins to boil, turn off the heat but to not remove the pot from the range.  Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid.

Step 4:
Start timer.  After exactly 8 min, pour off hot water and rinse and submerge the eggs in very cold water.  This will stop the cooking as well as help separate the shells from the eggs.

Step 5:
Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, gently tap them all over on your counter so that the shells are well cracked. The more cracks on the eggs, the easier the shells will be removed as one big sheet. Voilà! Perfect hard boiled eggs.