How to perfectly cook a boiled egg: the best methods and chef's tips

A boiled egg is the simplest dish, but even professional chefs disagree on how to cook it properly and how to eat it. The only thing that is not in dispute here is that the eggs should be fresh and the water should be boiling.

To put this issue to rest, the Telegraph asked readers and experts to share their secrets and ways of cooking and eating boiled eggs. Here's the result.

How to boil the perfect egg?

As expected, the experts' opinions on this matter differed. However, they agreed that there are many different ways to boil eggs perfectly.

For example, Eleanor Stiefel, a recipe columnist for The Telegraph and author of the Friday Night Dinner cookbook, believes that "an egg should be boiled for six and a half minutes in boiling water. Then, to cool it down, she advises dipping it in cold, running water for 30 seconds.

In turn, experts from the British Egg Council believe that before boiling an egg, it should be covered with cold water, 2.5 cm above the egg, and then put the pan on high heat. After the water boils, they advise waiting:

• 3 minutes to get a very soft yolk and a hardened white;
• 4 minutes for a slightly firmer yolk and white;
• 5 minutes for a firm yolk and white.

By the way, to make sure the egg is ready, professionals say, rotate it. If it spins, "wobbling" during the rotation, the yolk and white are still liquid, and if it is evenly in one place, it is ready.

How to cool an egg?

If you want to eat a cold egg, or stop cooking it to preserve the perfectly soft yolk, put it under cold running water or immerse it in a bowl of water and ice.

How to eat a boiled egg?

The classic way is to eat an egg with buttered toast or sourdough toast cut into thin strips. Eleanor Stiefel recommends putting a whole egg on buttered toast or eating it with asparagus, dipping it in the yolk.

As for the readers' opinions, one of them wrote that before eating, "the top of the egg should be removed with a precise knife movement, leaving the yolk intact." And another said that half a slice of buttered toast should be cut into six pieces, with "the first two at an angle to get a point that can pierce the yolk shell."