Alternative Use for the Electric Kettle



How many specialty appliances do you have in your kitchen, those that are only really intended to do one thing? Chances are you have many, and they take up a relatively large amount of space in your kitchen, either on your counter or in your cupboards.

Wouldn't it be great if you could get more out of those items? Most of the appliances I have I've found many uses for.

One such item I have is my electric water kettle. Growing up, we didn't have one of these things, we only ever had the ones you put on the stove. But when I moved out of my parents' this was one of the first things we bought. I REALLY love hot chocolate! And it's so useful to have it STOP when it's reached boiling point. My dad has ruined quite a few kettles because he just went away to do handy stuff in his garage and forgot it was on. (He's stubborn, he does NOT want an electric one.)



I use it almost daily for the dishes now (hot water takes a while to get to the tap and so as to not waste too much, I boil it). For making coffee or tea or hot chocolate. It already gets a lot of use. But I've found one more way to make it useful for us.



I use it to make hard-boiled eggs! I think it's pretty genius of me hehe!

Have you read that to make the perfect hard boiled eggs you bring the water and eggs to a boil, stop it, cover, let rest for 15-20 minutes, and transfer the eggs to cold water? What if there was an appliance that would STOP the water boiling once it reaches boiling point FOR you? (ok, that sounds incredibly lazy now that it's written out lol)

So that's what I do, I just gently put the eggs in the electric water kettle (you don't want to chip them because cleaning this out is harder than a pot).



Now, our kettle is actually broken and won't turn off on it's own. But we make it work, the process goes faster actually since I boil the eggs 5 minutes, turn it off, and let stand 5 minutes before transferring to a bath of cold water.



My water bath is just an old mushroom container. I keep them around the kitchen and reuse them a lot, to thaw meat, to put my cut veggies as I cut them instead of a bowl (they are often all dirty lol), etc. They are a great size and shape, and I like reusing stuff :)

I also change the water in the water bath a couple of times. Alternatively, you can put the container in the fridge.

I use a timer because I'm super forgetful, and I'm used to having one in the lab so I don't need to think about times.

If you have a functional electric water kettle that will stop once it boils, then put 20 minutes on your timer when you turn on the kettle. You may have to adjust times if your eggs are still not cooked through.



Wasn't that pain free?! I like this method because it goes super fast. The cooking times makes it so that there's no yucky greenish-grey film around the yolk.

It takes total less than half an hour from the fridge to the finished product (in my case, devil's eggs). We often make eggs also to put in ramen noodle soups.



But wait! There's more!

I also want to share tips for breaking the shell of the eggs. There are some other tricks out there, keeping the eggs in the pan with a bit of water and shaking gently will remove all the shell pieces, but that's a little messy for me. I think it would be really great if you had a bunch of eggs, but for a few eggs I got a better way. I think...

What I do is I hold the egg horizontal and hit it staight down to make an indentation.



Then I roll the egg to make a line of broken shell.



I remove those pieces of broken shell, so there's a line in the middle of the shell. I always have a little trouble with removing the first piece... that's why there's a little nick in the egg.



Then I can just remove the 2 big pieces in one shot. You want your broken line big enough or else removing the big pieces is harder.





I've never seen anyone else break shells like this, but I like it. It makes it kinda fun, trying to remove the biggest shell piece possible!

So were my tips helpful? Do you think you'll try it or you got a better way?

Oh, and I cleaned my water kettle just for this post. I realized after taking the first set of pictures that having it that dirty just would not cut it.


Gross right?!

I don't think I'd ever have cleaned it this good if it were not for this blog post, but boy does it feel good to not see it all yellow inside!! I just boiled some diluted vinegar (1 part vinegar to 2 parts water) in it. But that didn't do much. Had to use my cleaning toothbrush...



There are still some corners that were next to impossible to reach, still. But better than before! Especially the nozzle!



Ahhh! So much better :)

Those of you on my Facebook page, where I shared a sneak peak that I was cleaning my water kettle for a post, did you ever think it would be about this?!

Oh and if you liked how I used my electric kettle to boil eggs, WAIT til you see how I use my rice cooker! Coming soon...

Thanks for reading!



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5 comments:

  1. What a great idea! Thanks so much. I have the exact same kettle and I'm always trying for the perfect hard boiled egg so I'm super excited to try this. Have you tried more than 3 at a time? How much water do you start with? Thanks again!

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  2. Genius! I don't have an electric kettle or else I would be making me some eggs. Isn't it funny how sometimes you don't notice how dirty something gets until you try to get pictures. I have a cleaning toothbrush too. Thanks for sharing at Terrific Tuesdays.
    Rachel
    adventuresofadiymom.blogspot.com

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  3. Thanks for sharing with us your interesting ideas!:-)

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  4. hehe Gen!! I LOVE this post!! I LOVE hard boiled eggs... and nope.. I have never done it this way. GENIUS!!!!!! I will try your method for removing the shell too hehe

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  5. I've been doing this for a while now, especially at work since I pay the bill. I clean the egg shell well before I put it in the kettle and use the boiled water on the noodles, so I get my lunchtime meal done faster!

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