Hard-Cooked Eggs

There are many ways to hard-cook an egg, but after much testing, we found no better method than the one used by Chris Edwards, chef at Le Saint Sebastien in Paris’ 11th arrondissement and vice-champion of the 2021 Oeuf Mayo World Championship (oeuf mayo is a classic French bistro hors d’oeuvre of hard-cooked eggs garnished with mayonnaise). Added to boiling water, simmered vigorously, then shocked in icy water, eggs emerge not only perfectly cooked, the shells peel away cleanly and easily. This approach worked for softer-cooked eggs, too. Boiling for 6 to 6½ minutes gave us perfectly just-runny yolks; 8½ to 9 minutes for medium yolks; and 12½ to 13 minutes for hard-cooked yolks.