Hard-Boiled Eggs: Tips

Like many of us, I've read a billionty tips on how to cook, and how to peel, hard-boiled eggs.

The best tip on how to properly hard-boil, without getting grayed yolks, is to put the eggs in enough water to cover well ("covered by 2 inches", but as long as they're covered, they're good, IME). Bring the water to a boil, and turn it off. When you can comfortably rescue the eggs from the water (below 140 deg F), they're done, and not overdone.

Now, how to get them to peel easily. Serious cooking guides (that actually test their own advice) seem to agree the most important factor is using old eggs. Fresh eggs won't peel well. Eggs that are at least three days old peel well. Here's one instance where your grocery store's high turnaround can work against you. Fortunately, they intentionally cycle the oldest perishables to the front, so the ones you pick up are likely to be the oldest available.

Another tip that supposedly works is to plunge them into ice water, after cooking. Tonight, I boiled 3 dozen eggs, and tested this theory. One dozen went straight from hot water to ice water. 10 of them peeled well. Another dozen sat in the slowly cooling hot water (now just warm), and I peeled them next. 8 of them peeled well.

OK, 10/12 versus 8/12. Probably significant, but not overwhelming. But wait...

I took those 4 eggs from the warm water, and soaked them in ice water. Three of those became really easy to peel. Ta-dah! Ice water saved hard-to-peel eggs!

Clearly, it's not important that the eggs get plunged immediately from the hot water into the ice water. My feeling is, after peeling 36 tonight, that the ice bath firms up the whites, making it easier to pull the sticky shell membrane away. As long as the egg is chilled, the outer flesh is firm, and it works. Cooling them slowly, and refrigerating them before peeling, should work just as well. But that test is for another day.

So, to summarize, here's how to make great hard-boiled eggs:

1. Buy eggs a few days ahead of time if possible, because older eggs peel better.
    
2. Cover the eggs with plenty of water, bring to a boil, then cut the heat.
   
   
3. When the water cools to a touchable temperature, fill a bowl with ice water, and spoon the eggs into the bath. Once chilled, they will peel easier.

10th Anniversary of my Vigil at the Runestone

I was here.

Near as I can tell, it was 10 years ago, Wed Aug 9 2000, when I sat at the Runestone in the cold, damp dark, and heard words of love, praise, wisdom, and caution, having been startled clean out of my wits earlier that day by being put on vigil by my Queen, Elana, at an impromptu court in Midrealm Royal.

Upon returning home from Warre, I wrote this missive, and sent it to both the Apprentice List, and the MK Laurel list.

Dexter Learns to Swim

Today, Dexter and I went down to the "river", which today (after three days of rain) actually looks like a small river... until you realize it's never more than thigh-deep. Nice little rapids,  just enough to make it look exciting, but not enough to even body surf. In fact, Dexter walked down them to join me in the "deep part"... which lead to him realizing that the water became too deep to walk. A moment later, I had him in my arms, and plopped him in the water for his first-ever swim. SOOOOO sorry I couldn't take pictures of that!

He, um, didn't like the idea, of course. Swam right to the shore, shook himself off, and pouted. But, a few minutes later, he swam back to me, unable to be apart from Daddy. Once he got to me, he just HAD to climb up on me... which led to him climbing the Daddy tree. Two dog paws on my head, two digging into my ribs, and a wet dog belly plastered against my face. Heh.

After that, he was done swimming. I alligatored in to the shallows to tempt him out again, but he just made me his personal flotation device. Stood resolutely on my back, until he noticed the air mattress floating back out...

Anyway, lots of fun was had, and blessed relief from the humid heat today.

Sorry there aren't many pictures, but it's tough to get them while splish-splashing about! Click to embiggen.

Dexter lies on his back to get his nails done

Sorry, no picture, but like many dog owners, I was dreading the nail clipping times. I tight-leashed his head so it couldn't reach his feet, gripped him tightly against my ribs, held his paw vice-like, and did my business... when it occured to me that I was approaching this all wrong.

The books say, if your dog fears storms, don't console him ("Aw, poor poochy, are you frightened?"), because that only reinforces the behavior. Just like with little kids. Wrong: "Aw, come here. That must hurt!" (tears increase to sobbing). RIGHT: "Did you fall down? Wow! Show me your boo-boo. That's cool!" (head nods in agreement, sniffling). Really. It works.

So, instead of dreading the nail clipping, and making a big, hairy-scary deal out of it, I decided to make it ordinary, frequent, and part of our cuddling time. Every morning, I reach over, take the clippers, and mock-clip his nails, shaving the edges. While he lolls around on his back, getting belly rubs. Once in a while, I clip an actual nail, now that I've convinced him this is nothing unusual.

I let him sniff & lick the clipper. He's cool with it. It's not the enemy.

Since I do it every day, I don't have to do all 4+1 claws on a paw at once. Probably could, at this point, but, heck, they aren't going to get that long, with this practice.

Yay, attitude! His and mine!

the finger

Reflections on highway anger, beginning with a Bukowski poem.

Puppy Weight Predictions - Weigh-In

So, in this post I used a set of data to predict that my dog would "add 6-7# over this next week (1/3 of his current weight, or 13% of his adult weight)" (that is, over June 4-10).

How much did he actually gain? About 2 pounds.

Dexter Is a Good Boy (repeat!)

HEEL

I didn't post about HEEL yesterday, because I spend too much time on the leash fighting Dex. But yesterday's post made me think about what is going wrong with HEEL... I'm losing my patience, and instead of teaching a command, I'm expecting him to know it - then punishing him for not obeying. That violates "No Bad Dog", since it skips the fact that he really doesn't understand HEEL yet, and assumes he's just being bad. He isn't. I haven't taught him well enough.

Dexter Is a Good Boy (repeat as needed)

So, I have lots of proof Dexter really tries to be good. And now I have one more piece of evidence.

Witness my new pavilion floor cloth, painted on both sides with primer, and now top-coated with a putty-colored acrylic. Throughout all three coats, on both pieces, I've been cautioning Dexter OFF! whenever he came near. I actually started out briefly tying him up, which any normal person would do, but then realized that I would be missing out on a perfect training opportunity.