How To Hard-Boil Perfectly Every Time

There is no excuse for an overcooked hard-boiled egg. No excuse for sulfurous bombs, chalky, green-rimmed yolks, whites as tough and bouncy as pencil erasers.

The perfect hard-boiled egg–critical in this simple Spanish potato salad–has a tender white and a slightly creamy yolk. Master our foolproof approach, and you can make deviled eggs whenever you want.

The method: Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan just large enough to accommodate them. Fill the saucepan with enough cold water to cover the eggs by at least an inch and set over high heat. Bring the water to a boil, then remove the pot from the heat, cover and set a timer for 7 minutes. Uncover, pour out the hot water from the pot and fill the pot with cold water and ice. Let stand one minute, then remove the eggs from the water, crack them and return to the ice water. Let stand until completely cool, then drain the boiled eggs and carefully peel. Once peeled, rinse the eggs under cold water to remove any remaining bits of shell.

This will yield hard-boiled eggs with barely creamy yolks. If you prefer a drier yolk, cook the eggs for 8 minutes before draining them.

Older eggs are easier to peel than fresh ones because the whites of fresh eggs have a low pH, causing the shell to adhere tightly to the its membrane. Either save your older eggs for boiling, or, if fresh eggs are all you've got, add a little baking soda to the boiling water to raise the eggs' pH.