Boiling Eggs

When the COVID-19 “work from home” started in March, I started consuming boiled eggs as an easy source of protein. In my house, we’d consume 3–4 boiled eggs per day, easily adding up to 20–25 eggs in a week.

Boiled eggs have a shelf life of about 7 days. Their taste doesn’t deteriorate over the week either. Leveraging this, we iterated on our process of boiling eggs to make it more time and energy efficient. Here’s how.

Evaluation Criteria

For each of the boiled eggs recipes we tried during the months of March and May, it might be appropriate to evaluate them using the following criteria:

Equipment needed — what equipment is needed for this process
Capacity — how many eggs can you boil in one batch
Time — how much time does it take to make eggs and more importantly, how much of your active attention is needed
Energy efficiency — how much energy are you using or wasting
Risks — what risks might you run into during the process

March

We started by boiling eggs how we had always boiled eggs before. This is how we had seen our family & friends boil them. Using this recipe that goes something like this:

1. Place eggs in a saucepan. Pour water, until above 1 inch above the eggs
2. Rapid boil with no lid (Having no lid apparently slows down the heating and reduces the likelihood of the shells cracking)
3. Turn off heat, put the lid on
4. Wait for 15 mins
5. Put eggs in ice water bath (This is needed to stop the whites from overcooking and sticking to the shell)

Let’s evaluate this method using our rubric:

• Equipment needed: Saucepan, optionally tongs.
• Capacity: Started out with a small saucepan that could boil 6 eggs at once, eventually moved to a bigger saucepan that could boil 10.
• Time: 30 mins of cook time. 15 mins to reach boiling, 15 mins after. Need to pay some active attention for the first 15 mins to make sure that I don’t accidentally leave the stove on or that the water doesn’t boil and spill over. Active attention can be minimized by setting timers and using the appropriately large saucepan.
• Energy efficiency: Fairly large energy usage. Need to boil large quantity of water, that too with a lid off.
• Risks: After the eggs are boiled, need to carefully pour the boiling hot water into the sink or use tongs to pick one egg at a time, which is not easy either. See “Time” bullet for additional risks.

April

In April, we challenged ourselves to improve the process. We researched a bit around the internet and found this 5–5–5 recipe to “steam” eggs.

1. Place eggs in the instant pot on a trivet
2. Pour only half a cup of water
3. Pressure cook for 5 mins
4. Natural release for 5 mins (release remaining pressure after)
5. Ice bath for 5 mins

Let’s evaluate this method as well:

• Equipment needed: Instant pot & its default accessories (trivet & mitts). Of course it doesn’t make sense to go purchase a $100 instant pot just to boil eggs but if you have one already, it makes sense to leverage it.
• Capacity: Trivet would fit ~6 eggs. If I tried to fit more on the trivet, 1–2 of them would break.
• Time: 15 mins of cook time. 5 mins to achieve pressure, 5 mins to cook, 5 mins for release. Active attention needed is low if you set timers and rely on instant pot app notifications.
• Energy efficiency: Small energy usage. Only half a cup of water and it’s pressure boiled.
• Risks: Low risk. Don’t have to watch the flame. No chance of spillage. After cooking, eggs can be easily picked with instant pot mitts because they aren’t submerged deep in hot water.

Overall, this process was a huge improvement over the March method. It lowered cook time, required less active attention, (intuitively) used lower energy and had a smaller risk profile. We already had the additional equipment that was needed.

The maximum capacity this method offered however was a bit limiting.

May

We loved the April process. The main challenge to solve at this point was just the capacity. After socializing this challenge among friends, we learned about this instant pot stackable egg steamer rack. We bought it immediately and tweaked our April process to use the egg rack instead of the default trivet that the instant pot offered.

Evaluation:

• Equipment needed: April equipment plus the egg steamer rack. Not a big deal given it was as cheap as $7.
• Capacity: 18 eggs 😎
• Time: Same as April.
• Energy efficiency: Same as April. Arguably lower per egg.
• Risks: With proper slots to hold the eggs, the chances of eggs breaking was even lower than April.

Overall, the capacity was improved substantially. It was mind blowing to watch an entire carton of 18 eggs go in an instant pot and come back hard boiled. We now make boiled eggs quickly just once over the weekend and it lasts us most of the week. We look back on our March process and laugh “were we really doing it that way?”

In Conclusion

Although this story is about eggs, I learned something deeper through this journey. Here’s what I’m going to do going forward:

1. (Iterate) If I do something on a repeat basis, I’ll take a step back to identify if there’s a better way to do it. There probably is.
2. (Feedback) As I iterate, I’ll seek feedback from others, even on the smallest thing (like boiling eggs). Whether that be asking the internet or my family & friends. Many creative brains put together is better than one.