Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

Perfect hard-boiled eggs: How to do that?! With Easter coming up, and 25 years of experience at The New Deli (where we boil about 72 eggs once or twice a week), I thought I'd share.

An article on MSN Delish mentioned one way to do it: Just put the eggs in a pot, cover with water (to 2" above the eggs), and bring to a boil. Then, remove the eggs from the heat and let them sit for 10 minutes before pouring off the hot water and refilling the pot with cold water to cool them.

That's almost how we do it at The New Deli, but I don't know if the above method would be fool-proof. If you cook a large number of eggs, it will take a longer time for the pot to get up to a boil; the eggs closest to the burner will get too hot (and become overcooked and rubbery). So, the solution? Bring a separate pot of water to a boil first. That way, you can pour boiling water over a pot of eggs, putting that pot back on the burner to come back up to a boil. It won't take too long for it to get back up to boiling. Once there, remove the eggs from the heat and let sit for 20 minutes. Then do the same cooling routine, pouring off the hot water and refilling the pot with cold water. (Do this twice, if necessary, to cool the eggs off quicker.)

Oh, and the egg coloring companies aren't joking when they tell you to used cooled-off eggs. I tried using very freshly boiled, slightly warm eggs one year, thinking it would help the colors to stick better; my results weren't as positive...

Another suggestion I just read about: Add 1-2 TBS. vinegar to the pot of egg-cooking water. It can help if there's the slightest crack, to keep egg contents from splurging out. I'll have to try this next batch I do!