The quest of the perfectly boiled egg

[Purplehazed]

24. I think you are...

essentially controlling the temperature that the inside of the egg reaches by this method. This was the way that I was taught to hard boil and egg. Happily, you don't have to wait until the eggs come to room temp. After 12 or so minutes the eggs will be cooked and no green ring. But if you try this method with a ridiculously large pot and only a few eggs, you will get the green because the large amount of water will hold the heat and get the inside of the eggs hotter. I don't believe the green has anything to do with nitrogen.

From about.com "The green ring forms when you overheat the egg, causing hydrogen and sulfur in the egg white to react and form hydrogen sulfide gas. The hydrogen sulfide reacts with iron in the egg yolk to form a grayish-green compound where the white and yolk meet."

I learned an old restaurant trick years ago and have never put eggs into a pot of water since; steam the eggs. Simply put the eggs in a steamer basket over a small amount of boiling water. Steam for 12-14 minutes. This way you are precisely controlling the time that the eggs are being heated. The added bonus of this method is that the intense heat from the steam cooks that membrane between the shell and the white and the shells will slip right off. Never a half pulled apart egg again.