Perfect Jammy Eggs

A must-know egg technique

Hey, everyone.

This week I’m going to show you how to make perfect jammy eggs. This way of making eggs achieves the ideal dichotomy, in my opinion— fully set whites and yolks that hover just between runny and firm.

These eggs are incredibly versatile. You can see from the picture above that I made them into a Turkish cilbir-inspired dish. They’re great on toast, in a bowl of ramen, on top of a rice bowl, or eaten on their own with a bit of salt and hot sauce.

Enjoy, and let me know if you’ve got any questions!

Myles

Cook Time

This technique is incredibly simple— bring a pot of water to a boil, drop in your eggs, and cook them for some amount of time. Achieving the ideal texture is all about dialing in your cook time.

When I make these eggs, I usually aim for 6.5 min of cook time. I’ve found that to be a reliable reference point.

That being said, you can easily adjust the time as needed to get the texture you want. Adjust by 30 second increments in either direction for yolks that are more or less runny. Sometimes when I’m cooking very large eggs, I’ll add another 30-60 seconds of cook time to account for the size.

Add an extra two minutes (8.5 min total) for something closer to a hard-boiled egg, or go for 4-5 minutes for a just-set white and runny yolk.

Process

Start by bringing a pot of water to a rolling boil. Once it’s there, gently drop in your eggs. Set a timer for 6.5 minutes and cook the eggs, maintaining a gentle boil the whole time.

In the meantime, prepare an ice bath. Put a bunch of ice in a bowl and cover it with cold water, leaving enough room to add the eggs.

Once 6.5 minutes have passed, move the eggs from the boiling water to the ice bath (this is most easily done with a slotted spoon).

This will halt the cooking process and prevent the eggs from over-cooking. This step isn’t strictly necessary, but it does help a lot. If you don’t have ice on hand, put them under running cold water until the outside is mostly cool to the touch.

Leave the eggs in the ice bath for a few minutes. Then, gently crack the shells with the back of a spoon. Peel a bit of the egg shell away, making sure you get below the membrane (the thin film that is between the shell and the white).

I learned this trick cooking professionally— once you’ve peeled a bit of the shell/membrane, put them back in the water for a couple minutes. This helps them peel more easily. After a couple minutes, peel them completely. I do this directly over the bowl of ice water, occasionally dunking them to wash off excess shell. You can also peel them under cool running water.

At this point they’re ready to go. Slice in half, top with flakey sea salt, eat as is or with whatever dish you’d like.

Enjoy!