Taking the Hard Out of Hard-Boiled

In the store the other day, I saw this product that claimed to “take the hassle out of hard-boiling an egg.” Right... Well, I don't know about you, but I've never had a problem with hard-boiling eggs. You put the egg in water, you boil it, and TA-DA! Now, granted, it does take a few minutes to boil. And peeling the hard-boiled egg can get a little messy. But is any of that truly difficult? Really, the only challenge is knowing when to take the egg out of the water. And even then, what's the worse thing that could happen? The egg overcooks a bit, and you end up with that ugly green patina around the yolk. Oh no! Somebody call 911, there's a green patina on my yolk! I mean, really?

Well, for some reason I picked up the package and read some of the gadget's directions. Which were fairly basic – crack egg into the gadget, screw the thing shut, and toss into a pot of boiling water to hard-boil. Basically, they're the same directions as provided above, only in this case you crack the egg open before you cook it. And it made no mention of overcooking the egg to a green patina. So it fails to even address the most challenging aspect of egg hard-boiling.

Needless to say, I didn't purchase the gadget. And to the people who created the gadget – nice try, but I think I'll be keeping my $1.50.