How to Perfectly Hard-Boil an Egg

Time/Date: 0220 GMT, 04-Feb-11
Location: The edge of a former open-pit mine, SE Senegal

A little local history/lore:

The open-pit mine mentioned above was operated by a Dutch company a couple or so decades back.

As the story goes, they were smuggling the recovered gold out of the country, apparently thinking money for mining royalties would be better spent on wooden shoes and/or dykes (insert giggle here).

The local populace didn't appreciate this too much, so they were asked very politely (think pitchfork & panga polite) to consider relocating their operations elsewhere.

Back to present day: at another drill site, an unwelcome visitor decided to stop in.

(photo by M. McGregor)

He was quickly dispatched with hospitality not typical of what I've seen in West Africa.

(photo by M. McGregor)

For those of you that clicked on this honestly expecting to learn the best way to hard-boil an egg, here you go:

• place eggs in a medium-sized pot; 
• cover them with cold water to ~1cm above the height of the eggs; 
• add a dash o' salt (I use sea salt, just to be cool & hip); 
• bring water to a rolling boil; 
• let simmer (i.e., turn to 'Min' on stove) for 12 minutes. Not 10 min. Not 13 min. TWELVE; 
• run under cold water for a minute or two; 
• enjoy.

PS-Don't belittle yourselves by posting theatrical & self-righteous 'you rape the earth' anti-mining comments. Unless you happen to be making them through telepathy or via a computer made entirely from organically-grown switch grass from inside a sod hut. Just sayin'.