Nancy Silverton's Tips For Making The Best Hard-Boiled Eggs - Exclusive

Achieving the perfect hard-boiled eggs can sometimes feel like a feat best reserved for the experts. For such a seemingly basic technique, the results are often unpredictable, leaving you with a rubbery yolk or whites that have barely set. And that's not to mention the hassle of removing the shells, be it with the latest hack or a combination of grit and perseverance. As much as we love them, making hard-boiled eggs often leaves us feeling frustrated and wishing we had opted for scrambled.

Chef Nancy Silverton is a wealth of cooking knowledge, so we asked her to shed some light on how to successfully boil eggs. "I am very specific about my hard-cooked eggs because I don't like them overcooked and dry," she prefaced, a promising sign that she's spent ample time investigating the right technique. "The yolk needs to be cooked just enough that it's solid but still wet looking," she described in more detail. Considering Silverton knows her way around an egg salad, we doubt she's wasting time with less-than-perfect boiled eggs. Although bigger isn't always better, in this case, Silverton noted, "I also recommend using extra-large eggs."

Thanks to Silverton's advice, we know that optimal results are within reach. There are many schools of thought regarding the order of events, starting from adding eggs to cold water vs. dropping them into hot water. Some people recommend draining the water immediately, while others prefer to leave the eggs sitting in warm water.

Chef Nancy Silverton is in the latter camp: "I simmer the eggs for five minutes in boiling water and then turn off the heat and let them sit in the water for another five minutes," she explained. Once the time is up (and timing tends to be pretty crucial when it comes to eggs), she removes them from the saucepan. "I then put them in an ice bath and after they are cooled, peel them under cold water." This reduces the chance of mangling the egg as you peel off the shell, leaving you with smooth eggs to slice and dice as you wish.

Nancy Silverton will be part of the star-studded lineup at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which runs from February 22-25 in Miami, Florida.