How To Boil An Egg Without Cracking The Shell

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How To Boil An Egg Without Cracking The Shell

It's a continual frustration when I boil an egg that when I drop the egg into the boiling water, the shell cracks. Not only does it make the egg unpresentable, it also makes timing a little less certain.

I like my eggs soft boiled (dippy eggs as my children call them) so for a small egg it's three and a half minutes and for a medium to large egg I'll give it four. If the egg cracks then it becomes a bit of a lottery.

I was listening to the radio the other day when I heard this egg boiling tip and it really does appear to work. The secret is to drop two matches into the boiling water before the egg.

I don't understand the chemistry behind it but I gather that it's something to do with how the phosphorous in the head of the match reacts but so long as it works, do we really care?

Look, it really works!

So next time you fancy a dippy egg, give this egg boiling tip a whirl and see what you think.

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