Joy of Cooking

by Irma S. Rombauer

If using a steamer basket, place it inside the pot, bring the water to a boil, and gently place the eggs in the basket with long-handled tongs. Cover immediately and steam the eggs 5 minutes on high heat for large eggs.

Steaming eggs is our favorite way to hard-cook them, hands down. Boiling enough water to steam eggs takes much less time than that required to boil them, and the shells are easier to peel. Our steamer was handed down to us (it was Marion’s), and has a perforated insert that stacks on top. We definitely prefer it over the collapsible baskets that fit inside a pot, since all you need to do is place the eggs in the insert, bring the water to a boil, then place the insert on top and cover. (Lowering eggs into a pot with tongs is not our favorite thing to do.)