Boiling the perfect egg may sound simple but in reality, there are tons of ways you can mess up the task. If you love boiled eggs, you deserve to get some that are the perfect texture and taste every time, but does that mean you have to boil them in a pot on the stove just to get that? Surprisingly, the answer is “no,” and in fact, if you don’t have access to a stove and you still want to boil some eggs, a good electric kettle can help you get tasty boiled eggs in the end.
Why Is Boiling Eggs So Difficult?
Boiling eggs isn’t complicated, but one small error and it can ruin every egg you put in there to boil. To get the perfect boiled egg, you have to have the right amount of water in the pot and boil them for the perfect number of minutes. Take them off the stove too soon and they’ll be too runny; take them off too late and they’ll be tough and overdone. Neither of these is a good scenario.
If you’re living in a dorm or you’re interested in enjoying a good boiled egg on your lunch break in your office, you can use an electric kettle to do the hard work for you. No electric burners are needed and no stoves, because as long as you have an electrical outlet somewhere nearby, you can be enjoying fresh hard-boiled eggs in no time.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Boiling Eggs in an Electric Kettle
- To get started, place the eggs gently in the bottom of the kettle, making sure they do not get anywhere near any of the heating elements. Fill the kettle up with water until the top of the water is roughly one inch above the eggs. No more water is necessary.
- The next thing you should do, although it may sound a little funny, is take something like a notepad or some other object and place it underneath just one side of the kettle. Yes, this means your electric kettle is going to look lop-sided, but that’s the way it’s supposed to look at this point. The reason you’ll do this is to make certain the eggs don’t touch any of the heating elements in the kettle.
- Next, go ahead and turn on the kettle. In most cases, you’ll have an automatic shut-off feature that will turn the kettle off once the water inside is boiled. Set your timer for 13 to 15 minutes and wait. The exact time will depend on how hard or soft you want your eggs to be, and you may have to play around with it and test it out a few times to find the right time for you.
- Once your time is up, you can remove the eggs from the kettle and either set them on a dry towel or place them in a bowl of cold water so you can bring down their temperature. Once you get to this point, just peel and eat … and enjoy your boiled eggs!
Helpful Things to Remember
Some other helpful tips when boiling eggs in an electric kettle include:
- If you have a kettle that has an exposed heating coil, don’t use it because the eggs may crack as they’re boiling inside of the kettle
- If you like boiled eggs that are fairly soft, boil them for 10 to 12 minutes; if you prefer them a little harder, go ahead and boil them for a full 15 minutes
- Never overcrowd your eggs; just put enough of them inside the kettle so they are not crowded, which will depend mostly on the size of the eggs themselves and the overall size of the kettle
Once again, you might have to experiment to make sure you time the boiling of the eggs just right. Another tip you can utilize is to pour out the warm water once the timer goes off and place cold water in your kettle to help cool down the newly boiled eggs. Sometimes this is easier than placing the eggs in a bowl of cold water, and it is certainly more efficient.
Related: Can You Put Eggshells in Your Garbage Disposal?
Conclusion
There are many times when you may need to boil eggs without a stove or even a pot, and using your electric kettle is a great option. To make it even better, you can then use the kettle for many other tasks once you’re done boiling your eggs. This includes making hot cocoa, warming up baby bottles, and making oatmeal, instant noodles, and even soup.
Keeping an electric kettle in your office or dorm room is smart for many reasons, and once you boil eggs in it just one time, you’ll wonder why it took you so long to discover this method. The fact that you can also use it for so many other cooking tasks is just another reason to keep it around for a very long time.
