Egg Boiling Time Calculator

How long to boil eggs, by doneness

Boiling times control texture, not safety, so pick the number that matches the yolk you want and start the timer the moment the water returns to a rolling boil. These base times are for a large egg taken straight from the fridge and lowered into already-boiling water:

• Soft-boiled, 6 minutes: set white, runny yolk. The yolk sits near 150F.
• Medium or jammy, 8 minutes: firm white, thick but soft center, about 158F.
• Hard-cooked, 11 minutes: fully set yolk, well past the 160F safe minimum.

Go much past 12 minutes and the yolk turns rubbery with a gray-green ring, which is harmless but unappetizing. The USDA safe minimum internal temperature for eggs is 160F, listed on the USDA egg safety pages, and the FDA egg safety guidance says the same for anyone in a higher-risk group.

Two details decide whether your timing holds. Start the clock at a full boil, not when the eggs go in, and keep the water at a gentle simmer rather than a hard rolling boil, which can crack the shells and bounce the eggs around. A pot that is too small crowds the eggs and slows the temperature recovery.

Worked example: a dozen large eggs from the fridge

You want hard-cooked eggs for deviled eggs. Take a dozen large eggs from the fridge, lower them into boiling water, and set a timer for 11 minutes. Then move them straight into an ice bath for 5 minutes. Work backward: 11 minutes of cooking plus 5 minutes of chilling means the eggs are ready to peel about 16 minutes after the water boils, plus the 8 to 10 minutes it takes a pot of water to come up to a boil. From a cold pot to peeled eggs is roughly 26 minutes.

If you want a softer, jammy yolk for ramen, the same dozen takes 8 minutes and the ice bath matters even more, because carryover heat keeps cooking the yolk while it sits on the counter. Pull at 8 minutes and chill for 5, and the center stays creamy. If you want them firm enough to slice cleanly for a salad, add a minute and go to 12.

Worked example: high-altitude and room-temperature eggs

Two adjustments move the numbers. A room-temperature egg cooks faster than a fridge-cold one, so subtract about a minute: a room-temperature large egg for a jammy yolk is about 7 minutes instead of 8. Altitude works the other way. Water boils at a lower temperature the higher you go, roughly 1.9F lower for every 1,000 feet, so eggs need longer. A common rule is to add about a minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level. At 5,000 feet, hard-cooked large eggs take about 16 minutes instead of 11.

The calculator applies both adjustments for you, along with the egg-size tweak: medium eggs cook about a minute faster than large, extra-large and jumbo eggs take a minute or two longer. If you are not sure, err on the side of the shorter time and check one egg, because you can always cook an underdone egg a little more but you cannot undo a chalky yolk.

Boiling times and temperatures at a glance

Every combination the calculator handles, for a large egg from the fridge unless noted:

At 5,000 feet, add about 5 minutes to each time. At 2,000 feet, add about 2. The federal safe minimum temperature chart is the source for the 160F egg figure.

The ice bath and why eggs peel cleanly

An ice bath does two jobs. It stops the cooking dead, so the yolk does not creep past the doneness you timed for, and it shrinks the egg slightly away from the shell, which makes peeling easier. Give it a full 5 minutes. If you skip the bath, the egg keeps cooking in its own heat and a soft yolk can firm up into a hard one while it cools on the counter.

Peeling is mostly about the age of the egg. Fresh eggs have a low-pH white that clings to the inner membrane, so they tear. Eggs that are a week or two old peel far more cleanly. If your eggs are fresh, add a pinch of baking soda to the water, or steam the eggs instead of boiling them, and peel under running water starting at the fat end where the air pocket sits.

Food safety: who should skip a runny yolk

Salmonella can be present inside a clean, uncracked egg, which is why the federal guidance is to cook eggs until the white and yolk are firm for anyone in a higher-risk group: young children, older adults, pregnant people, and anyone with a weakened immune system. A soft or jammy yolk does not reach the 160F safe minimum, so it is not guaranteed pathogen-free even though many healthy adults eat them without issue.

Once cooked, refrigerate eggs within 2 hours, or 1 hour if the room is above 90F. Hard-cooked eggs keep up to 7 days in the shell or peeled, per USDA guidance. Anything left out on the counter for a long afternoon of snacking is the riskier choice, not the cooking method itself.

Storing the batch matters too. Hard-cooked eggs keep up to 7 days in the fridge, in the shell or peeled, per USDA guidance, so write the date on the container. Peeled eggs are best eaten within a couple of days, because the white dries out and picks up fridge smells once the shell is gone. A soft-boiled egg is a same-day food, since a runny yolk is not a leftover you want to reheat, and reheated eggs turn rubbery. If you cooked more than you can eat, slice them into salads or pickle them in vinegar, where they keep for weeks.

One last number to plan with: a dozen hard-cooked eggs serves about six people as deviled eggs, so two per person is a safe estimate for a party.