I am sure it is going to vary with different cook-tops, but I do soft boiled eggs virtually every morning and I find that it works perfectly by bringing them to boil on 9 which on my cook-top is the highest setting other than H (which would have the boost). I then turn them down to 1 and set the timer for 3 minutes. They turn out just right every time. When I tried bringing them to boil on H, they did boil too fast and were not done in 3 minutes.

I haven't tried hard-boiling eggs yet, but in the following link Thynes mentions the method he uses for boiling his wife eggs every morning. (She apparently likes them hard as can be.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Induction and boiling eggs

I got a great little gadget from WS to determine when hard cooked eggs are done. It's a plastic flat bottomed, plastic egg that turns from red to dark red. I put it in the pan with my eggs, bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let them sit till the plastic egg turns dark red. Maybe you could try one of these.

you have eggs sitting in water that has boiled sat for 20 minutes. These must be big eggs, or you must be far above sea level. Try longer boil or more salt or smaller eggs.

no- never had any trouble making hard boiled eggs on induction, but I've never done them that way.

I learned to put them in the water, bring to boil and boil for 15 mn. Then run under cold water.

Grew up on a farm with chickens (have my own small layer flock right now) and that is the way we always hard cooked eggs.

I just made a pan of hard boiled eggs tonight - and they were done fine. My hens lay very large eggs too.

I don't boil eggs on the stove, but if you do figure out what works for you and you have a program function on your induction, this would be a perfect application for programming. :)

Hard boiled eggs on a Kenmore induction range:

6 eggs brought to room temp. 3 qt saucepan. Digital therm.

Fill saucepan 3/4 full cold fresh water. Burner on boost.
When water feels lukewarm carefully add eggs. Add additional water to bring level within 1.5" to 1" of rim. Fix therm probe to monitor temp in middle of water level at center of pot. As temp passes through 195ðF begin reducing burner output power so that temp never goes over 205ðF and boiling is minimal. Set timer for 11 minutes and keep adjusting power level to hold around 200ðF.
Remove eggs to small bowl and place under cold running water for a few minutes and then start shelling.
Once this gives you a base line for results, it will be easy to made your own adjustments and simplifications.
Good luck!

Hard boiled eggs on a Kenmore induction range:

6 eggs brought to room temp. 3 qt saucepan. Digital therm.

Fill saucepan 3/4 full cold fresh water. Burner on boost.
When water feels lukewarm carefully add eggs. Add additional water to bring level within 1.5" to 1" of rim. Fix therm probe to monitor temp in middle of water level at center of pot. As temp passes through 195ðF begin reducing burner output power so that temp never goes over 205ðF and boiling is minimal. Set timer for 11 minutes and keep adjusting power level to hold around 200ðF.
Remove eggs to small bowl and place under cold running water for a few minutes and then start shelling.
Once this gives you a base line for results, it will be easy to made your own adjustments and simplifications.
Good luck!

On our Samsung:

Boil on PowerBoost/High, then turn down to 8. Otherwise, the water boils over.

For soft boil, cook 5 minutes
For hard boil, cook ~10 minutes

Rinse and peel.

On my Kenmore induction cooktop, I put two eggs (from the refrigerator at 37 degrees) into a small pot with enough room temp RO water to cover them by a half inch or so. I put the pan on the smallest hob, set power to "P," and set a timer for 2 minutes to avoid disaster. At about 2:20, more or less depending on the water level, the water starts boiling and I turn down the power (sometimes in stages) to setting 5.5. (Otherwise, the water would be blasted out of the pot.)

At onset of boiling I set a timer to 8 minutes. After 8 minutes I remove the pan, flush it with cold running water and peel the eggs. They are firm all the way through. The pan I use has thin walls and base, so it retains little heat. Letting the eggs cook from the thermal capacity of the water would not work without using a considerably larger pot. The key, I think, is to maintain boiling water over the cooking period.

I've never tried longer times with slightly sub boiling temperatures, so I can't confirm any improvement in taste or texture.

kas

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have always known there were two ways to do it. Either boil and then let them sit...or keep simmering for a length of time. For forty years I have done the first, but I will change my cooking method to the second. I just never thought about the induction changing the way the eggs cooked. Duh !! Thanks for all the timing details and advice. Cheril I have to admit to not knowing what store WS is. And, Laat, are you a chemist or engineer...very detailed instructions. :-) I appreciate it all.

Try to avoid the practice of quickly lowering the temperature of any hot cookware by filling with cold water as this tends to warp the bottom and makes for instability when used on a flat glass cooktop.
Better to either let the liquid cool for a bit first in the pot if burning on of material would otherwise occur or dump it if it is only boiling hot water and let the pot air cool.

A runny white can sometimes result from an eggshell cracking from being bounced around during vigorous boiling and letting water and steam get in to mess things up. Minimize steam spots developing by wiping clean the dry bottom stainless interior of an induction pot with a folded paper towel moistened with vinegar.

I also "guess the induction gets hot too fast." Since induction is so efficient, bringing them to a boil and then cutting the power means they have less heat than before. Add a minute or two.

Sorry, Marc. I was too lazy to type out William Sonoma. See link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: William Sonoma Egg Timer

As I said in my previous post, it probably varies with different induction models, but I cannot imagine just turning the burner down to 7 or 8 to boil the eggs. It would seem they would continue to boil vigorously, rather than just simmer. At least for soft-boiling, simmering them works perfectly.

I guess I'm the only one who steams eggs?

What's the advantage of steaming an egg, Plllog?

As for the original poster's question, the only reason I could puzzle out would be that the super-quick onset of the boil is such that it provides insufficient time at temp to thoroughly cook the eggs. This would be a good science project, though. Start 5 eggs out in a pan, covered with tap-temperature water. Start the induction cooker. Start the timer when a full boil is reached. Then remove an egg at 10, 13, 15, 18, and 20 minutes, plunging each into cold water immediately to halt the cooking. Then evaluate the state of each egg by peeling them, one at a time. The optimally done egg will be your target time for your cooktop/altitude combination.

Over on Cooking Forum (miss you plllog!) a lot of people swear by steaming eggs. For one thing (if not the only reason) it supposedly makes the peeling process neater, consistently. I've not tried it myself but given the way my eggs often peel I probably should give it a shot!

Here is a link that might be useful: Here's one recent discussion

Mojavenan, I don't know that there is any advantage to steaming the eggs, though I believe what the others have said about the easier peeling. There's a small advantage in the rack that you put the eggs in. I was just idly wondering following the discussion of water getting into the egg and ruining the white. That doesn't happen when you steam them because they're not in the water. Not a huge advantage. :)

Huge advantage in using an automatic egg boiler to steam them. :) My folks received one as a wedding gift from an uncle who was into gadgets. Still works with a new cord. So much fun! The first one I ever saw since then was shaped like a chicken and clucked when done. Had to get it. :) I made do with a pot on the stove during the many years between.

Oh! I know what the advantage is! If you use an egg rack or a steamer basket you don't have to chase your egg around the pot to get it out! Or worry about breaking the shell if you pour the water off first. Not big, but I remember once boiling a single egg in a turkish coffee pot, when I lived abroad, because I hate that chase thing. :)

Hi FOAS!! I couldn't take the crosscurrents over there, but I miss you and some of the others too! I don't know why steaming would help the peeling--okay, I looked at your linked thread and got the air answer. I mostly buy free range brown eggs, which have thin, softish shells which are a pain to peel. Once in awhile there are white eggs, which come from less interesting hens, but have much thicker, stiffer shells and are a snap to peel. They have different textures too, so maybe the white eggs are more air-permeable? Both prepared in my automatic egg steamer, which gives pretty uniform results.

I still think this is a perfect application for the memory function, especially if you have a boil sensor. :)

I'm going to try steaming and see how that works. plllog - have the the exact opposite problem - my brown eggs are thick shelled and harder to peal, and had problems with the white eggs being thin - and the hens were eating the same thing (mostly bugs, btw).

If I notice thin shells, it's because the hens aren't getting enough calcuim - but that normally only happens in the winter when they are cooped up (litterally!).

With induction, it's so easy to get a good simmer going for steaming, and it sounds like I can use my veggie steamer insert and do a big batch all at one time. I don't have to worry about those on top ending up out of the water.

Wow! That's interesting about the shells! I always figured that the difference between the brown and white eggshell thickness went like the color, with the particular breed. I get the calcium thing. It's hard to know what you're getting in the city. I always tell the butcher I want the chickens/eggs that are allowed to eat bugs (not "organic" which means that their food must be controlled), and I try to buy "local", though here that means within a couple hundred miles. There are so very many opportunities to lie along the way, I just hope that's what I'm getting most of the time!

I digress. Yes to all you've said. The veggie steamer on the simmer should work fine. I always punch a hole in the round end. Every so often, if the eggs get a little too hot too fast, a bit of the white will bubble out, especially if they're on their sides, but it's no harm. The peeled egg is normal.

Thanks, Plllog. I am going to steam my next batch and see how they come out. I had never heard of steaming an egg, but now I gots to try.

The vision of chicken-shaped egg steamers that cluck is wonderful!

Have fun steaming! I'd never heard of griddle toasted bread until this forum. That worked pretty well. :)

Fancy names like Krups and Cuisinart now have egg cookers, and there are quite a few other brands as well, all making standard small appliance, grown-up ones, but you can still get Henrietta Hen, which was the first one, post-Uncle Charles, that I'd seen. It's pretty flimsy, but it gets the job done. And it's cute. :)

Mark_ia, how's it going? Are you having better success with your new stove?

plllog -- have you ever tried steaming eggs in your combi oven?

Nope. I'm still trying to get rice right (there are instructions for different kinds of rice than I'm trying to cook, so I have to experiment).

If I remember, I could try it just for grins. :)

Thanks again everyone. I successfully cooked six hard boiled eggs this morning !! I hear the applause. smile. I brought them to a boil and then simmered for 15 min. I will have to experiment a little more with bringing the heat down from the boil. I lowered it immediately to 3 and of course it quit boiling so I had to go back to 9 and bring it down two levels at a time...I will experiment next time to make that easier. Pllog I never heard of steaming until reading about it here (where have I been? not to the cooking forum for a while :-) ) and I definetly want to try that. And, I looked at Henrietta and I must say that I really like that...I have never owned an electric egg cooker but that is sure cute. Might have to spring for one. And, Cheril thanks for letting me know about the Williams Sonoma item. I have seen those before and will keep it in mind. I think once I do this a couple times, I will have the exact schedule...or I will get Henrietta. So cute. Thanks for all the fun reading. You guys are great.

Old thread but I wanted to update this with my Bosch 800 induction (2015).

I read the above and using the following got perfect "soft" hard boiled eggs- orangey but solid through all the yolk except for the rim which was yellow. LOVE the individual burner timers!!

4 eggs from the fridge in med saucepan

Cover 1/2 inch over top of eggs with lukewarm water (no salt)

Power boost to boil (2.5 mins)

8 minutes on level 6 (low boil)

Sit in bowl with cold water to cool.

I am at sea level.

scrappy, I don't often make hard-boiled eggs, but when I do I want to use your "recipe" since I also have a Bosch induction unit. Could you clarify - when you say "cover 1/2 with lukewarm water", you mean 1/2" above the top of the eggs, right?

What size pot and which burner do you use?

I also LOVE the individual hob timers.

Hi SJ,

I just edited my post to clarify that the water went 1/2 inch above the top of the eggs. Thank you.

My pan is 6 1/2 inches diameter, and I use the right front burner. However, I think that the only difference the pan size makes would be how fast it gets to boiling. Let me know if that "recipe" works for you!