How Long to Boil an Egg: Soft, Jammy or Hard Yolks

The short version: 6 minutes gets you a soft, runny yolk, 7 to 8 minutes gets you jammy, and 10 to 12 minutes gets you fully hard, all timed from the moment the water is already boiling, not from when you put the pan on the hob. Start your eggs at room temperature where you can, and get them into cold water the second the timer goes off. That last bit matters more than people admit.

The actual times, no faffing about

These times are for medium eggs, lowered gently into water that is already at a rolling boil, then timed from that point:

• 6 minutes - soft yolk, runny, whites just set
• 7 minutes - soft-to-jammy, yolk starting to firm at the edges
• 8 minutes - jammy, the Instagram yolk, thick and glossy but not solid
• 9 minutes - firmer jammy, barely any wet centre left
• 10 to 11 minutes - fully set but still pale and tender
• 12 minutes - fully hard, firm yolk right through

Large eggs want 30 to 45 seconds longer at every stage. Small or medium-large eggs from a box that says "mixed weight" are the reason your boiled eggs never turn out the same twice, and nobody tells you that.

Why starting from cold water ruins your timing

Most recipes you'll find say "put eggs in cold water, bring to the boil, then time for X minutes." That method works, but it's unreliable because how long it takes your water to reach boiling depends on your pan, your hob, how many eggs are in there and how much water you used. Start the clock from "cold" and you're adding a variable you can't control.

Bring the water to a full boil first, on its own, then lower the eggs in with a slotted spoon. Now your timing starts from a fixed point every single time. This is the same logic I'd use for cooking rice on the stove: control the one variable that keeps changing, and the rest of the method stops being a guessing game.

A worked example: batch-cooking eggs for the week

Say you run a household where someone eats two boiled eggs most mornings and you want to batch-cook six on a Sunday for jammy yolks all week. Bring a large pan of water to a full rolling boil. Lower all six eggs in gently with a spoon, straight from the fridge (cold eggs need an extra 30 seconds, so set your timer for 8 minutes 30 instead of 8). Set a timer for 8 minutes 30 seconds. The second it goes off, tip the eggs into a bowl of ice water, or at minimum very cold tap water, and leave them there for 5 full minutes before peeling or storing.

Peeled or unpeeled, keep them in the fridge in a covered container and eat within 5 days. If you peel them straight after cooling, they'll keep slightly less well than if you leave the shell on, so for a Sunday batch, leave shells on and peel as you go through the week.

The cold water step everyone skips and shouldn't

This is the one bit most people cut corners on, and it's the reason their "jammy" eggs turn hard by the time they've peeled them. An egg keeps cooking from residual heat for a good minute or two after you take it out of boiling water, even sitting on a plate. If you don't shock it in cold water, your 7-minute jammy egg drifts towards 9-minute firm while you're hunting for a spoon.

Five minutes in an ice bath also does the actual job of stopping the shell sticking to the white, which is the other thing nobody mentions when they tell you "just peel it under running water." Running water helps a bit. A real cold shock helps far more.

Peeling without destroying half the egg

Fresh eggs, oddly, peel worse than eggs that have sat in the fridge for five to seven days. A very fresh egg has a membrane that clings to the shell, so if you've just bought a dozen, don't expect them to peel cleanly on day one.

Once cooled, crack the egg all over on a hard surface, roll it gently between your palms to loosen the shell everywhere at once, then start peeling from the wider, blunter end, where there's usually a small air pocket that gives you a starting edge. Peeling under a thin stream of cold water helps wash away stray bits of shell.

What goes wrong, and why

A greenish-grey ring round the yolk means it was overcooked or cooled too slowly. It's harmless, sulphur reacting with iron, nothing to worry about, but it's a sign your timing or cooling step is off.

A cracked shell mid-boil usually means the eggs were too cold going in, or the water was at a violent boil rather than a gentle one. Keep it at a steady rolling boil, not a furious one, and let fridge-cold eggs sit out for 10 minutes before cooking if you can.

Uneven yolks, with one side softer than the other, mean the egg wasn't fully submerged or wasn't rolled in the water. Use enough water to cover the eggs by at least an inch and give the pan a gentle swirl in the first minute to help centre the yolks, which also makes for neater deviled eggs if that's where you're headed.

Altitude, egg size and other things that quietly change your timing

If you're cooking at a meaningfully higher altitude, water boils at a lower temperature, so add roughly 1 minute to every stage above. Large eggs versus medium, as mentioned, want 30 to 45 seconds more. And a pan crowded with a dozen eggs takes longer to return to a full boil after you add them, so either cook in smaller batches or add 30 seconds to your timer if you're doing a big batch in one go.

None of this is complicated once you've done it two or three times with an actual timer running, rather than guessing by eye, which is how most people end up with grey rings and rubbery whites in the first place.

I have written more around this on the site: How to Cook Rice on the Stove: The Simple Method (2026), The Best Free PC Games With No Downloads for Casual Players (Tested Over Two Weeks).

Frequently asked questions

How long do you boil an egg for a hard yolk?

10 to 12 minutes in already-boiling water gives you a fully hard, firm yolk right through, timed from the point the eggs go into boiling water, not from cold.

How long for a jammy yolk?

7 to 8 minutes gives you the classic jammy, glossy yolk that's set at the edges but still soft and thick in the centre.

Should you start eggs in cold water or boiling water?

Starting in already-boiling water gives far more consistent results because it removes the variable of how long your pan takes to heat up, which changes with every batch and every hob.

Why do my boiled eggs have a grey ring around the yolk?

That's a harmless reaction between sulphur and iron caused by overcooking or cooling too slowly, and it's a sign to shorten your cook time or shock the eggs in cold water faster next time.