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Egg Timer
Boiling an egg is unforgiving in a small way: the window between a soft, jammy yolk and a chalky, grey-rimmed one is only a couple of minutes wide, and there is nothing visible from the outside to tell you where you are. A timer is the whole game. This one gives you one-tap presets for soft, medium, and hard, a manual dial if you have your own timing, and a clear alarm when the pot is done. The preset times assume a large egg lowered into already-boiling water. Soft — around six minutes — sets the white while leaving the yolk runny enough to dip toast into. Medium, about eight to nine minutes, gives a yolk that is jammy at the centre and mostly set at the edges, the sweet spot for a ramen egg or a salad. Hard, roughly twelve minutes, sets the yolk fully; going much past that is what produces the grey-green ring and a sulphurous smell, so hard-boiled is a ceiling to hit, not a target to overshoot. Those numbers are a starting point, not physics. A fridge-cold egg runs a little longer than a room-temperature one; a small egg a little shorter than a large; a rolling boil cooks faster than a bare simmer. Start with the preset, then adjust by fifteen to thirty seconds next time based on how the first one came out. The non-obvious tip is altitude. Water boils at a lower temperature the higher you are — noticeably so above about 1,000 metres — which means the water around your egg is cooler than 100°C and the egg cooks more slowly. If your eggs come out underdone and you live somewhere elevated, that is why: add a minute or two rather than assuming the timer is wrong. And regardless of altitude, drop the finished eggs straight into ice water. It halts the cooking so they do not drift past done on residual heat, and it makes them far easier to peel. Keep this tab open while the pot is on — the alarm fires reliably as long as it is. Wander to another app and it can lag by up to a minute, and on an iPhone the side mute switch will silence it entirely, which is a poor way to discover your eggs are three minutes overdone.
Egg
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Frequently asked questions
- How long do soft, medium, and hard boiled eggs take?
- For a large egg dropped into boiling water: about 6 minutes for soft (runny yolk), 8 to 9 for medium (jammy), and around 12 for hard (fully set). The presets here use those times; adjust to taste.
- Should I start the timer with cold or boiling water?
- These presets assume the egg goes into already-boiling water. If you start eggs in cold water and bring it to a boil, the total time is longer and less predictable — the boiling-water method is easier to time consistently.
- Why do my eggs come out underdone?
- The usual reasons are altitude (water boils below 100°C at elevation, so eggs cook slower — add a minute or two), using fridge-cold eggs, or a weak simmer rather than a proper boil. Nudge the time up and keep the water at a steady boil.
- Why put the eggs in ice water afterward?
- An ice bath stops the cooking immediately, so the eggs do not keep firming up on residual heat, and it makes the shells much easier to peel. Slightly older eggs also peel more cleanly than very fresh ones.
- Will the alarm go off if I leave the kitchen or lock my phone?
- While the tab stays open and the screen is awake, yes — though a backgrounded tab can delay it by up to a minute. Lock the phone or let the screen sleep, especially on an iPhone, and the alarm may not fire at all; a closed tab will not either (there is no server). Keep the page in front, and on iPhone keep the side mute switch off.
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