Boiled egg, the diner way

Bring the water to a rolling boil first. Cold-start recipes make timing a guess, because nobody's stove heats at the same rate; a boiling start makes the cooking time the same in every kitchen.

Lower the cold eggs in with a spoon. A cold egg into boiling water does not crack if it is lowered, not dropped; the thermal shock people blame is almost always the drop.

Set a timer: 6 minutes for a runny yolk, 7 for jammy, 9 for firm but not chalky. The yolk sets between the sixth and ninth minute, and nothing you do after that gets it back.

Move the eggs to the ice bath the second the timer goes and leave them two full minutes. The ice stops the cooking and shrinks the egg away from the shell, which is the whole trick to peeling.

Crack at the fat end, where the air pocket is, and peel under a trickle of water. Start from the wide end and the membrane comes with the shell.

Older eggs peel cleaner than fresh ones; the air pocket grows as the egg ages and the membrane lets go.

If you need to peel a dozen, shake them gently in a lidded pot with a splash of water. The shells crackle off in about ten seconds.