Boiled eggs. Keeping a special pan.

I love eggs, 'particularly soft boiled. FOr a time I worked in a local Carvery and the 'chef' there would fill a verykarge saucepan with about three dozen or more eggs and hard boil them. Then they were plunged and kept into cold water for about 15 minutes and then put in the fridge.
As I also like hard boiled egg salad, I started to do this at home - boiling up about ten eggs at the time to cover most of the week. I would put these in a saucepan, cover in water, turn on the gas, and go down my hallway to the office to do some work to past the time.
Inevitably, I would forget, even when I would smell something like burning. Cannot say how many saucepans I threw away (burnt), and eggs I wiped down of the walls, etc.
My children got fed up with this and bought me one of those little egg boiler machines. Absolutely wonderful, they buzz when they are finished. So, cannot forget about them. Have had one of these (been replaced once) for the past 25 years and would not do without it.

I have a multi-purpose small pan, though it is used mainly for eggs. I cannot see a use for an egg boiler device. I bring the eggs and water to a rolling boil, turn off the heat and put on the lid. Five minutes for soft boiled, 8 to 10 minutes for hard boiled, no standing over them watching. And nice time to make the toast.

JackyB

Missiseff start your own interesting thread, don't hijack mine.
Laurely I loved reading the story of your growing up on the farm. Thank you.

My cousins lived on a poultry farm and I stayed with them as a child for holidays. Even then I didn't like it that the hens were cooped up. Later we kept our own free range hens and my DD still does.

Whoops Grammaretto I must have meant 25 February not March. Easter is on 12 April.

This year I seem to have several calendars which do not clearly show the month.

Callistemom - not until I started reading this no

Granless - so was I! Unfortunately! It would have been a lot more interesting that this that's for sure!

If we're having salad, I hard-boil eggs in a small saucepan along with potatoes.

A glimpse of social history from 60 years ago may explain why I don't see any problem or use a special egg pan.

When I was a girl and lived on a farm, in the days of the Egg Marketing Board (way back in the middle of the 20th century), it was often my job to help 'do' the eggs in the evening. Our hens were locked up in hen-houses overnight and let out early every morning; they laid in straw-lined nest-boxes.Their eggs were collected by hand, twice a day, into buckets with a bit of straw in the bottom.

After the tea-time washing-up was done, the water was left in the sink and the egg buckets lifted on to the kitchen table. We aimed to have the job completed and all clearing-up done by the time The Archers was over (in those days it ran from 6:45 to 7pm).

We sorted the eggs by size, and put clean ones straight into the grey cardboard trays that held 30, or used a damp cloth to rub off eg mud and light soiling first. Very dirty eggs were washed in the cooled water left from washing-up, and sometimes even rubbed with Vim powder to remove residual staining, before being dried and put in the trays. Only cracked eggs, wind eggs, or those so stained that we couldn't make them look clean were kept for use at home. (I think my father gave the egg money to my mother.)

Yes Elegran, you are quite right. It was glass with ridged circles and bounced and jiggled around. They are called milk guards or pot watchers and you can still buy them. Who knew!

Missiseff ... I was a bit worried when you mentioned the word vibrators . Now I have read a few more postings I’ve come to realise I was way off. Never having heard of a vibrator for milk got me rather puzzled.

Mine wasn't steel, it was definitely glass or clear plastic. The rim round thin large bubbles when the water was nearly boiling, and made it rattle up and down. It was only one small extra thing to wash.

I remember those steel plates to go in the milk pan too Elegran.
I don't recall them vibrating though. It created more washing up, no doubt.

My DM was a one for gadgets. Anything new she would fall for it.

Time saving was the thing. She bought a microwave when they first appeared and proceeded to use it for making scrambled eggs!

Thanks for the Shrove Tuesday reminder JackyB. I think you must mean February. 25th.

I've no idea where mine has gone, or the egg-timer thingy. I don't remember throwing it out, so it is tucked away somewhere!

I had one of those as well Elegran! Had forgotten all about it until you mentioned it. Given my total disinterest in matters culinary I’m at a loss as to why I might have been heating milk??

Thank you for advice, will try it. The only draw back is my chicken eggs are always very, very fresh - straight from the farm

I used to have an egg-shaped gadget made of clear glass or maybe plastic, that you put in with the egg(s) you were boiling. It had a bit inside it that turned red when it had been in boiling water long enough for the egg, with different areas for soft, medium and hard-boiled. You still had to keep looking into the pan to check it, though.

The vibrator thing people mention was a heavy glass disc with a rim. You put it in a pan with milk you were boiling up - when the bubbles started rising strongly, it shoogled around and made a nois (vibrated!) If you were quick you could take the pan off the heat before the milk boiled over.

I use the smallest pan to boil eggs but a friend of mine has a very small pan only for eggs and it`s a battered/discoloured /minging old thing.

Shrove Tuesday is 25 March.

I can't believe this thread has gone on for 5 pages either!

Funny what topics prompt everybody to have a say!

Egg Thread. Vibrator thread. morphing.
I have to admit to not reading the V thread.Keeping that for when I am really bored.
Talking of eggs when is pancake day? and how long to boil the perfect egg?

I’m amused reading and visualizing the vibrators on the kitchen counters being used as egg timer or whisks.
This thread has got to be one of the most amusing for a while!

I use a smallish non stick saucepan that was meant for heating milk - has a small spout. Used this for many years, it holds 5-6 eggs in a double layer.

Always pour the water into a jug kept on the side of the sink, we don't waste water in Australia - and when jug is full use water for pot plants or garden tubs.

My egg pan was inherited from My mother I've used it solely for eggs for 52years. Although I live with hard water I descale it when I do the kettle etc. My son bought me an electric egg cooker and I'm a convert, perfect eggs every time whether 1 or 7. With no need to stand around while they cook either.

You don't have to read it Missiseff

Were you that bored?

I've had mine for 54 years, only for boiling eggs.

Good grief. Can't believe so many folk are actually discussing this!!!!!
Bring back the vibrators before I shrivel up with boredom

I can't boil eggs , a basic of cookery.
DH does them if we have them boiled.