Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has shared his method for cooking the perfect boiled egg every time, and it hinges on adding a single simple ingredient to the water: a tiny pinch of salt.
In a video uploaded to YouTube, Oliver walked viewers through his approach, which he admits can leave some people baffled, for cooking a "perfect egg, every time." The 51-year-old chef opted for a large, free-range egg, which he boiled in water with a "tiny pinch of salt" added.
Why Salt Makes a Difference
Contrary to popular belief, the salt isn't there for seasoning purposes. Salted water can marginally affect how the egg white proteins set right at the surface and how readily water can slip under the shell if a tiny crack forms. It also offers some extra safety if eggs do crack, as salt helps the outer white coagulate a bit faster at the crack, which can "seal" the leak and reduce the feathery white strands in the pot.
In short, adding salt can improve consistency, make the peeling process easier, and prevent any of the egg from slipping through cracks in the shell.
How Long to Cook Boiled Eggs
Oliver also provided precise timings for different levels of doneness. For soft-boiled eggs, he recommended "five and a half minutes" precisely. For semi-soft-boiled, it's 7.5 minutes. Hard-boiled eggs require 11 to 12 minutes.
It's worth bearing in mind that the shell acts like a "mini oven," continuing to cook the egg once removed from the water, so for best results, you want to get stuck in fairly sharpish. Alternatively, another chef-recommended tip is to plunge boiled eggs into cold water as soon as they leave the pan, which stops the cooking process and can also make for easier peeling.
