Camp Hard-Boiled Eggs
A dozen eggs boiled the first morning, eaten cold for the next two days.
- calories
- 160
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 46
- protein
- 13 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 14 min
- water
- 900 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Snack
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Eggs | 4 | carried in a rigid egg case, not the carton |
|---|---|---|
| Water | enough to cover by an inch | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | in the water, plus more for eating |
Method
- Set the eggs in the pot and add cold water until they are covered by about an inch. Stir in the salt.
- Bring it to a full boil over the stove or on a steady bed of coals.
- Seven minutes from the boil gives a soft yolk. Twelve gives a firm one. Pull them at the number you want.
- Dunk them in cold creek or cooler water for two minutes. This stops the cooking and loosens the shell.
- Peel now or peel later. Peeled eggs keep better in a lidded container than loose in the cooler.
This is a car-camping and basecamp recipe, not a backpacking one. Eggs are not shelf-stable and there is no honest way around that, so they ride in a cooler and get boiled the first morning while the ice is still solid. What you get back is two days of protein that needs no stove and no dish.
The salt in the water is doing real work. It seeps through the shell and makes peeling less of a fight, which matters when you are doing eight of them with cold hands. The cold-water dunk matters more: skip it and the shell fuses to the white, and you spend breakfast picking gravel-sized flecks off a mangled egg.
Packing
Eggs travel in a hard case in the cooler, blunt end up. Once boiled and cooled they hold two days on ice. Carry the salt in a film canister so you are not hunting for it at breakfast.
Variations
- Boil a full dozen the first morning and you have breakfast and trail snacks for the rest of the weekend.
- Chop cold eggs into instant mashed potatoes for a dinner with real protein in it.
- A shake of chili powder and lime salt makes them worth eating on day three.
https://instacuppastore.com/blogs/main-page/electric-kettle-recipes-20-quick-meals-hostel-pg-office