How long to medium boil an egg
Medium · Large · Fridge
Get the ice bath ready. Yolks keep setting after the pan comes off.
Duck, quail, altitude and more
Medium boiled egg times adjusted for egg size, fridge or counter, and altitude. Set edges, fudgy centre, with a timer built in.
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.
| Egg size | From the fridge | Room temperature | Cold water start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 7 min 30 sec | 6 min | 5 min |
| Medium | 8 min 15 sec | 6 min 45 sec | 5 min 30 sec |
| Large | 9 min | 7 min 15 sec | 6 min |
| Extra large | 9 min 45 sec | 8 min | 6 min 30 sec |
| Jumbo | 10 min 30 sec | 8 min 30 sec | 7 min |
Medium, fudgy centre at sea level. Use the calculator above to adjust for altitude.
What a medium boiled egg is for
Salads and potato salad, where the egg has to be cut into wedges and survive being tossed. The edge of the yolk is set enough to hold together and the middle is still fudgy, so it reads as a rich ingredient rather than a garnish. It is also the most forgiving doneness on this page, which makes it the right default when you are cooking for other people and cannot stand over the pan.
How to tell it worked
Cut it in half. There should be a clear boundary between a pale set outer ring and a darker soft centre, with no liquid at all. The centre should look damp rather than wet. If the whole yolk is one uniform colour, it has gone past medium.
The usual mistake
Tearing it while cutting. A medium yolk sticks to a dry blade and drags, which pulls the egg apart. Dip the knife in water between cuts, or use a piece of thread pulled through the egg, which is what delicatessens do.
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.