Chopped, sliced or wedged, hard-cooked eggs are the basis of egg salad and add protein and a happy glow to tossed and composed salads and casseroles. Chopped yolks and whites comprise Eggs Goldenrod and Polonaise Sauce. Whole hard-cooked eggs become comforting, familiar deviled eggs or zingy, newly rediscovered pickled eggs. Simply sprinkled with an herb or more fancily coated in sausage for Scotch eggs, hard-cooked eggs are nature’s own hand-held snack food. With a supply of hard-cooked eggs on hand, you’re ready for almost any meal occasion.
Hard-cooked eggs are often incorrectly called hard-boiled eggs. Yes, the cooking water must come to a boil. But, you’ll get more tender, less rubbery eggs without a green ring around the yolk and you’ll have less breakage if you turn off the heat or remove the pan from the burner, allowing the eggs to cook gently in hot water.
Very fresh eggs may be difficult to peel. The fresher the eggs, the more the shell membranes cling tenaciously to the shells. The simplest method for easy peeling is to buy and refrigerate eggs a week to 10 days in advance of hard cooking. This brief “breather”...