How to cool down boiled eggs without wasting any, or much water?

A bowl of cold water, or with ice…

Put them outside in the cold winter weather.

^Yeah. I was putting my beer in the snow last week.

Good ideas.

.. better to live in cold climes and hope for no power outage.

You don’t need to run the water over them. Have a big bowl of ice water waiting, then you can pour that water on your plants after your eggs are cooled. I usually pour some of that ice water into the bigger pan (of boiled water) that the eggs were cooked in, to cool it off, and then let it sit until it’s room temperature, then pour it all on the plants. No wasted water.

There is no need for a quick cooling or a cold water bath. Let the pan of hot water cool a while, then put them in the fridge.

Instructions
1) Cover raw eggs with cold water
2) Bring to almost boiling (190 F)
3) Put the lid on the pan, turn off the stove
4) Timing is not important. Put the eggs in fridge when you think of it.

I wait until I can take them out of the water without burning my hand, about half an hour.

Put them in the fridge.

Freezer? Din’t forget they’re in there.

There’s an egg cooker that basically steams the eggs until they’re soft/medium/hard “boiled.” It’s a little contraption that does 6 eggs at a time and uses tablespoons of water for the “boiling” part. I was given one as a gift, and to my surprise it actually works well… Actually, because I’m terrible at keeping an eye on eggs when I boil them, they turn out more consistent for me this way (there’s a buzzer that goes off when they’re done). If you’re really wanting to reduce the water you use for boiled eggs, there’s that option, too. (And then dump the eggs into a cold water/ice water bath like others have mentioned).

Actually, I bet with a little experimentation the egg cooker’s steaming method could be replicated in a pan on the stove. Not sure it’s worth the effort and the cost of trial-and-error, though, since boiling works just fine.

I usually drain the boiled water, put in cold tap water, swirl it around, replace the warmed water with cold water => 3 pots of water to get room temp eggs. Tap water is cheap in my area.

Mode good ideas, except for the put in fridge idea.
The method of cold running water before putting them in fridge is so that the bacteria don’t have a chance to multiply.

Keep a 1 gallon bucket of water handy, and get a bucket that has a lid. Fill the bucket with one quart of water. When you boil eggs, put ice cubes in the bucket to get the water cold. Once the eggs are chilled, refill the ice cube trays with water from the bucket, seal the rest of the water in the bucket with the lid. Put the ice cube trays in the fridge and the sealed bucket of water in the fridge or pantry. The next time you boil eggs, repeat the process. You can put a small amount of bleach in the water to keep it from going bad.

Good idea, but
@Call_Me_Jay‘s method takes no space or need for other items etc. Except for the ”
“4) Timing is not important. Put the eggs in fridge when you think of it.” part. Timing is important because of bacteria starting to multiply unless they are cold enough or hot enough. I would say step 4) put them in bowl of ice water and put it fridge.

@flo Is that refrigerator frost free? And does a frosty free fridge have to work harder to control the extra moisture from the bowl of ice/cold water constantly kept in the fridge? How much space does one want to take up with this bowl of water? (I don’t have the room!) How much power is required to keep that bowl in there, covered or not?
Whatever… It’s all moot anyway…
(What fun!)

@kritiper, I’m sorry. Your way is great. I thought there’s 2 buckets. So, there’s no more space needed with your way.
But don’t ask me about frost free ,how much power it takes.

@flo Had to throw that in there since I have an old fridge that has to be defrosted. Excess moisture in the fridge just adds to the ice and increases the intervals of needed defrosting. But keeping a bowl of water cold in the fridge does require a bit more electrical power to maintain that water’s cold temp.

A bowl of water maintains the cold better than air. A full fridge uses less power than an empty one.

The difference between ice and room temp water (in the bucket) is only about 36 degrees and the freshly boiled eggs are 212 degrees. Does it really matter just how cold the cold water is??

@Call_Me_Jay That’s what I’ve been thinking too re. full fridge uses less power than an empty one.
@kritiper re. your last post I’m thinking about it I don’t know. Is 212 degrees as soon as they ‘re out of the boiling water?

If the yolk gets to 212°F for a long time, a gray layer is formed. If you use Martha Stewart’s method, the yolk stays below 212°F and remains a nice yellow.

But we’re referring to cooling them down before putting in fridge right?

I get the water to 190 F, turn off the flame, and cover the pan.

@flo Must be. Normal household tap water can’t be any hotter than 212 degrees, unpressurized. Even if the eggs were at 200 degrees, the difference in water temp would be 132 degrees for cooling water @ 68 degrees, 168 degrees for ice water @ 32 degrees, and 155 degrees for cold refrigerated water @ 45 degrees. So whether the “cold” water was 32 degrees, 45 degrees, or 68 degrees, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. To the eggs the water would still be cold. So you may not need to keep the water cold with ice or by just being in the fridge. Room temp water might be suitable for the purpose.

@kritiper and @RocketGuy I don’t understand why you’re are you referring to hot tap water and the appearance of very hard boiled or not so hard boiled eggs yolks?

Also the bacteria start to multiply unless they are kept at very hot or at cold enough. The water wouldn’t still be cold if I didn’t run them under cold water for a while. the eggs would make the water lukewarm. I put them put them in icy water in fridge preferably, the most ideal

By the way, in my last post, I was trying to ask you why are you referring to how eggs look at very hard boiled or not so hard boiled.

@flo Hot tap water, if set at the recommended water heater temp, is only 120 degrees. (In my last post, I didn’t mean that you were to use hot tap water. I only meant that regular water, not salted or sweetened or combined with any other chemicals or substances, and not in your car’s radiator or in a pressure cooker, otherwise boiling point would be higher than 212 degrees.) I refer to boiling pure water @ 212 degrees at sea level.
And you’re only rapidly cooling the eggs before storing in the fridge so the bacteriological problems you’re concerned about aren’t an issue. (You’re not storing the boiled eggs for any extended period of time in the bucket.)
Use a thermometer to see how cold your tap water is. Mine is 49 degrees. (Oh, yes, that is degrees Fahrenheit.)
If the bucketed water turning warmer than room temp by too much, use more water in the bucket, like, say, 3 gallons. As soon as eggs are cool, take them out of the bucket, dry them, and store them in the fridge.

@kritiper It must be me. I don’t get it.

The point I’m trying to make is that whether you put the just boiled eggs in ice cold water or water at room temp to cool them, the difference is minimal. (32 degrees or 68 degrees cooling water vs. just boiled eggs @ 200 degrees) So using ice cold water to cool the eggs doesn’t have much of an effect, really.

I’m not going with that @kritiper.

…I mean how can the difference between icy water and room temprature water be minimal? The difference is huge esp. in the context of bacteria, health.

My method of 2 pots of cold tap water (see above) takes 5 min. Then you can put into the fridge. You won’t be growing much bacteria and you won’t need to fuss with a bucket of ice water in the fridge.

@RocketGuy except that it’s not just about how the eggs feel it’s how hot they are in the middle. The ice water is needed I would think. There is not much fuss, ice is usually ready anyway.

There would be no chance of bacteria growing any more than usual if the eggs are refrigerated after being cooked. The difference between ice water and room temperature water is 36 degrees. Compare that to the water the eggs were cooked in: 212 degrees.
And the egg cooling water that you keep at room temp until you cook eggs? The little amount of bleach in the water will solve the bacteria issue/problem. And the water could be changed periodically, so still not a bacteriological problem. And the eggs will be dry when stored in the fridge. And, of course, you’re not eating the shells. Are you?? Or you could just let the eggs sit and air cool without water. I do that with pie.
NOT a complex issue to deal with…