How long to boil an egg
Medium · Large · Fridge
Get the ice bath ready. Yolks keep setting after the pan comes off.
Duck, quail, altitude and more
Work out the exact boiling time for your egg size, starting temperature and altitude, then run the timer. Soft, jammy, medium or hard.
The short answer
A large, fridge-cold egg lowered into boiling water at sea level needs 9 min for medium, fudgy centre. Set at the edge, soft and fudgy in the middle. Good for salads.
| Result | Small | Large | Jumbo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soft, runny yolk | 5 min | 6 min | 7 min |
| Jammy, thick and sticky | 6 min 15 sec | 7 min 30 sec | 8 min 30 sec |
| Medium, fudgy centre | 7 min 30 sec | 9 min | 10 min 30 sec |
| Firm, barely soft | 8 min 45 sec | 10 min 30 sec | 12 min |
| Hard boiled, fully set | 10 min 30 sec | 12 min 30 sec | 14 min 30 sec |
What actually changes the time
Most timing advice fails because it assumes one egg in one kitchen. Four things move the number, and the calculator above accounts for all of them.
Egg size
Heat has to travel to the centre of the yolk, and that distance scales with the egg's mass. A jumbo egg needs roughly two minutes longer than a small one for the same result. That is enough to turn a jammy yolk chalky.
Starting temperature
An egg straight from the fridge starts about 16 °C colder than one left on the counter, which costs around a minute and a half.
Altitude
Water boils at 94.7 °C in Denver rather than 100 °C, so the egg cooks in cooler water and needs longer. See the adjusted times by city.
Carryover cooking
The shell holds heat, and the yolk keeps setting for a minute or two after you drain the pan. Iced water is not an optional garnish. It is how you land on the result you timed for.
Eggs that are not chicken eggs
Because the calculator solves for mass rather than looking up a table, it handles any egg you can weigh. Duck, quail and goose eggs all work. Pick them from the list above.
| Egg | Typical weight | Soft | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quail | 10 g | 2 min | 4 min |
| Bantam | 30 g | 4 min | 8 min 15 sec |
| Pheasant | 32 g | 4 min | 8 min 30 sec |
| Duck | 70 g | 7 min | 14 min 30 sec |
| Turkey | 79 g | 7 min 30 sec | 15 min 45 sec |
| Goose | 144 g | 11 min 15 sec | 23 min 30 sec |
| Ostrich | 1400 g | 50 min 45 sec | 1 hr 46 min |
Other boiling times
Egg guides
Common questions
Should the eggs go into cold water or boiling water?
Boiling water gives you far more control, because the clock starts at a known temperature. Cold-water starts work too, but the time depends on how fast your hob heats the pan, so treat the cold-start numbers as a guide and check one egg. Pick "cold-water start" above and the times adjust for you.
Why does my timing keep coming out wrong?
Usually egg size or starting temperature. A jumbo egg needs about two minutes longer than a small one for the same result, and a fridge-cold egg needs roughly a minute and a half longer than one left on the counter. Altitude matters too: above about 1,500 m the water boils below 100 °C, so everything takes longer.
How do I stop the cooking at the right moment?
Move the eggs straight into iced water. The shell holds a lot of heat and the yolk keeps setting for a minute or two after you drain the pan, which is what turns a jammy yolk chalky. An ice bath also contracts the egg away from the shell and makes peeling far easier.
What causes the grey-green ring around the yolk?
Overcooking. Iron in the yolk reacts with sulphur in the white and forms iron sulphide. It is harmless but it tastes flat and chalky. Use the time above rather than a generic one and cool the eggs immediately and you will not see it.
Egg times come from the thermal-diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams (University of Exeter), calibrated so a large fridge-cold egg at sea level matches the times cooks actually use. Size, starting temperature and altitude then follow from the physics. Treat the result as a very good starting point, not a guarantee, because pans, hobs and eggs all vary.