How to use the online timer
Seven minutes puts an egg squarely in the middle: the white fully set, the yolk still bright and slightly sticky at the centre rather than either runny or chalky. This is the egg for halving over toast, for slicing into a salad, or for the jammy yolk that noodle bowls are built around. The count begins when the egg goes into water already at a rolling boil, not when the pan goes on the hob, because how long a pan takes to boil depends on the pan.
Egg size and temperature both move the result. Seven minutes leaves a large egg straight from the fridge behind a medium one that has stood on the worktop since breakfast, and the gap is easily half a minute of doneness. Lowering them in on a spoon rather than dropping them cuts down on cracked shells, and a pan wide enough for one layer cooks them more evenly than a crowded one.
Cold water at the end is not optional. Lift the eggs straight into a bowl of very cold water to stop the cooking, which also keeps the grey-green ring off the yolk; that ring is only iron and sulphur reacting, harmless but unappealing. Peel once they are cool, starting at the blunt end where the air pocket sits.
Common questions
Why start counting only once the water is boiling?
Because how long a pan takes to reach the boil depends on the pan, the hob and how much water is in it. Starting from a rolling boil is the only way seven minutes means the same thing twice.
My yolk came out firmer than expected. What changed?
Most likely egg size or temperature. A medium egg left out on the worktop cooks faster than a large one straight from the fridge, so adjust by thirty seconds and note what worked.
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