Boiled Eggs
Let the water be boiling when you put the eggs in it, and let the eggs boil three minutes after putting them in.--Mrs. S. T.
A four-word method that still works, with two caveats: eggs today are larger and colder than the ones Mrs. S. T. had at hand.
- Three minutes is short for a modern eggA large refrigerated egg lowered into boiling water for three minutes comes out with a liquid white near the yolk. Eggs of the period were not size-graded as ours are, and were less likely to have been refrigerated. For a cold large egg, count on about 6 minutes for a runny yolk with a set white, 8 for a jammy centre, 10 to 12 for firm; shave a minute or two if the eggs start at room temperature.
- Temper the egg firstCold shells dropped into a rolling boil crack and weep. Let the eggs sit in warm tap water for a few minutes, or lower them in on a spoon, and keep the water at a bare simmer rather than a hard boil so they are not knocked about.
- Volume of waterUse enough water to cover the eggs by an inch, and add them a few at a time. A crowded pan drops off the boil and the timing goes with it.
- AltitudeWater boils below 212F as elevation rises, and by a few thousand feet the difference is enough that eggs need an extra minute or so. The timing here presumably reflects low-lying Virginia.
- Stopping the cookingFor anything past soft, drain and cool the eggs under cold running water at once. Carry-over heat keeps them cooking, and prolonged cooking is what produces the grey-green ring around a yolk.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia, compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housekeepers, is full of entries this brief: the collection assumes a reader who already cooks and simply wants a household's preferred way of doing a thing. Timing by the minute becomes more common in print through the nineteenth century as clocks and watches grew cheaper, and a specific three minutes reflects a household that could measure it. Attribution by initials, as with "Mrs. S. T.", is used throughout the book alongside fuller credits.