Egg Cookers

Last Christmas, a cousin who knows I like to cook gave me an electric egg cooker. I wasn’t especially enthused. Is it really so hard to make boiled eggs in a pot that I need a special appliance taking up space on the counter? I put it away and forgot about it until I hit a week where I had come into work early, then had an idea. I brought in a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, and the electric egg cooker. I am not a morning person, but there’s some small consolation in having fresh soft-boiled eggs at my desk in less time than it takes to make the coffee.

Maybe I don’t need an egg cooker, but it’s a nice little extra.

An electric egg cooker is an easy way to make hard-boiled and soft-boiled eggs without a stove. It doesn’t need much water, so it’s easy to use outside the kitchen, like at an office or a college dorm room. With a little practice calibrating to your environment, it turns out boiled eggs with a minimum of effort and attention that are just as good as those made on the stove. An egg cooker is cheap and compact, and it just might be worth your while.

About Egg Cookers

How Egg Cookers Work

The water boils into steam, and the cover holds the steam in, steaming the eggs. Functionally, it’s very similar to boiling. If you like, you can try a stovetop steam by bringing an inch of water to a boil in a pot, then adding a steamer insert filled with eggs. Cover and steam 12 minutes for hard-boiled steamed eggs.

All but one of these cookers has a temperature sensor that detects the temperature rise when most of the water has cooked off, and signals that the eggs are done. You adjust the cooking time and final result by changing the amount of water at the beginning.

The poaching and omelette settings also steam the eggs, but in little plastic holders to hold in the cracked eggs. Steaming is less common for these preparations, at least in Western cooking. They work the same way as the boiled eggs, with the amount of water setting your cooking time. As a result, there are no actual settings, for heat, type of cooking method or time; the cooker works the same each time it is fired up: the amount of water added dictates cook time — cooking is assumed complete once the water has evaporated.

Problems with How They Work

Control

When you cook eggs on the stove, you have two tools for adjusting the final state of your eggs: time and temperature. In the electric egg cooker, the temperature is always the boiling point of water at your altitude, and you adjust the time indirectly by changing the amount of water in the cooker. It’s a fiddly adjustment, since it also depends on the starting temperature of your water and the cooker.

As a result, it’s hard to get perfectly cooked eggs. You’ve got to learn the peculiarities of your cooker and make adjustments. 

Poaching at a full boil is especially tough. When I poach in a pot, I start the water boiling, then turn it down to low heat and add the eggs. The gradually cooling water ramps me into an easy landing for the right consistency of yolk and white. No such luck here — you’ve got to have very tight timing with a device that doesn’t really support it. The steamed omelettes suffer from the same problems. 

Design

Ergonomically, some of these cookers are disasters. Some of the handles are located right next to where the steam vents, leading to a few scalds. There’ll be more of the injury parade in the individual reviews.

THE TEST KITCHEN — HOW WE TESTED

Before each test, we made a control group on the stovetop so we had something to which we could compare the eggs from the egg cookers. Along the way, we got a lot of experience with using these machines, and noted down what we found.

All six of the electric egg cookers we tested make boiled eggs, with water measurements for soft-boiled, medium-boiled, and hard-boiled eggs. Five of them also include a poaching tray for poached eggs, and four have an omelette tray. All but one have a temperature sensor that sounds an alarm when cooking is complete.

Everything we tested is relatively inexpensive, ranging from $15 to $35. As we found, though, a higher price does not necessarily point to higher quality.

1. THE HARD-BOILED EGG

A hard-boiled egg should be completely cooked through, but not overcooked. The white should be completely set, but not rubbery; the yolk should be set all the way through, but not dry, crumbly, or chalky.

We also used this test to try the egg cookers at maximum capacity, since hard-boiled eggs are the most useful in large quantities. The manuals for the largest units also recommend that maximum capacity only be used for hard-boiled eggs.

2. THE SOFT-BOILED EGG

A perfect soft-boiled egg should have a white that is opaque and firm all the way through. The yolk should be completely liquid, but warm and thick. We tried these both on their own with a spoon, and then dipped buttered toast into the yolk to get a better feel for the texture. Also that’s the best part. We made two eggs in each egg cooker.

3. POACHED EGGS

A poached egg should be like a soft-boiled egg, minus the shell. Opaque and firm white, viscous and warm yolk.

4. OMELETTES

There are a lot of omelette variations out there. Since the manuals had instructions for fillings, our control group was a diner-style folded omelette with ham and cheese. We wanted some browning on the outside transitioning to a fluffy and tender interior with nicely melted cheese.

5. ERGONOMICS

Throughout the tests, we commented on the experience of working with these egg cookers. We wanted a cooker that was safe, easy to use, sturdy, and easy to clean.

Why It Was Included in Our Roundup

Copper Chef is a a top selling cookware brand and their egg cooker is among the top most searched for on Google. With millions of dollars spent in adverting, including popular informercials  for their egg cooker, it was a no brainer to include the Copper Chef in our roundup.  

Hard-Boiled Eggs ★★★★☆

We loaded up two tiers totaling 14 eggs and decided to use the high end of the range in the manual since we were maxing it out. The eggs were harder to peel than most, but they came out almost right, with the yolks just a smidge overdone.

Soft-Boiled Eggs ★★★★☆

For this test, we went with the manual’s recommended 6 minutes, and were rewarded with good eggs. The whites were a little loose, but the yolks were just right.

Poached Eggs ★★★★☆

This unit poaches two eggs in half-circle shapes. The manual is completely vague here, and does not list a time at all. So, we eyeballed these as done at about 9 minutes. They were the best poached eggs that came out of one of these egg cookers, but not up to the control group. Specifically, the whites at the outside corners were rubbery and the very inside of the white was liquidy and undercooked. The odd shape of the poaching tray seems to lend itself to this sort of thing since the yolk is so isolated from the ends.

Omelettes ★★★☆☆

The manual has the same issue here where it doesn’t show a time, so we pulled the omelette when it looked done. Still more like scrambled eggs, but they’re acceptable scrambled eggs. I’d eat them, especially in an egg sandwich.

Ergonomics ★★☆☆☆

This might be the oddest entry in our lineup. Starting with the good, all of the parts stay pretty cool, and are easy to handle. It’s got the biggest capacity in our test, with a second tier expansion rack, for a total of 14 hard-boiled eggs, or 7 soft-boiled. The measuring cup is reasonably good, and it includes markings in milliliters so you have more insight when dialing in the right amount of water.

The bad is a big one, though. This unit does not have an automatic shutoff. You have to set a timer and shut it off manually. Worse, the times in the manual are very vague. For example, hard-boiled eggs have a range of 18-23 minutes. That’s a huge spread, and it’s not like you can look at an egg and see if it’s hard-boiled.

Overall ★★★★☆

So here’s the most vexing balance of the test. All of the results were at the top of the table, but we had to time it out ourselves, and in the case of the poached eggs and omelette, make up our own timings.

What does that add up to? Would some of the other units have fared better if we watched the food and timed it ourselves too?

I come back to the question of why you would buy an electric egg cooker. If you’ve got to stand there and monitor your omelette, you’d be well-served to make a better omelette in a pan.

I think the best use of these electric egg cookers is to make boiled eggs, and setting a timer isn’t too big a burden.

The Copper Chef Perfect Egg Maker is our Best Egg Cooker WINNER, it is recommended with reservations, specifically that it requires monitoring and finesse that the others don’t.

What We Liked

• Ability to cook 14 eggs as close to perfection as we witnessed from any of the other cookers
• Performed the best overall at each one of our four tests, producing a final product that was as close to our control group
• Didn't harm us in testing, like several of the other cookers
• Measuring cup is clearly marked

What We Didn’t Like

• No alarm
• There's some guesswork when it comes to cook-times
• Hard-boiled eggs were more difficult to peel then some of the other cookers

Ergonomics ★★★★☆

The Dash is the smallest cooker in our roundup, and it makes some sacrifices to get there. The capacity is the smallest at six eggs. The tray has a removable handle that sits up at the highest part of the steamer, so it gets very hot when it’s time to remove the eggs. Beyond that, everything is fine. It’s easy to see what’s going on, and the finish signal is clear. The measuring cup is average, with relatively readable markings. There are only four marks for hard, medium, soft, and poached/omelette, so you have to just eyeball adjustments. The piercer on the bottom has a cap for safe storage.

Hard-Boiled Eggs ★★★★☆

We got six eggs in a reasonable amount of time. They peeled well, and had well-cooked whites, but the yolks were a bit dry.

Soft-Boiled Eggs ★★★★★

These were the best soft-boiled eggs of the test. The white was extremely good, and we rated these eggs as better than the control group. This was the only time in the whole test day where that happened.

Poached Eggs ★★★☆☆

The Dash makes two poached eggs, and the egg tray’s handle has to be removed to accommodate the tray. Both eggs were undercooked with some liquid white in the center, but good yolks. Surprisingly, one egg was significantly more undercooked than the other. It’s unclear whether this was a fluke or something significant about the cooker.

Omelettes ★☆☆☆☆

Like the other omelettes in this test, the result here was closer to scrambled eggs. The top actually looked pretty good when the timer went off, but when we flipped the eggs out of their pan, the bottom half was raw. This cooker might be too small and underpowered to cook the eggs from the bottom effectively.

Overall ★★★★☆

On the whole, the day of testing showed me that egg cookers are good at boiled eggs, and not that good at anything else. The Dash made boiled eggs that are good, and sometimes great. The design is good enough — I wish I didn’t need a towel to pick up the handle, but that’s the worst thing about it. The Dash Rapid Egg Cooker is recommended with reservations, specifically that its omelette performance is subpar and its capacity is small.

What We Liked

• Great Hard & Soft-boiled egg
• Pricepoint
• Measuring cup is clearly marked
• Tiny but powerful

What We Didn’t Like

• Poorly designed handle
• Our omelette was undercooked

Ergonomics ★★★★☆

The Maxi-Matic is a real pleasure to work with. All the parts are cool to the touch and felt sturdy. The measuring cup is well-marked and easy to read. The manual is especially worthy of note. It has very clear instructions and quality troubleshooting notes. There are a variety of recipes, but we didn’t try those out. The only bad part was that it drips water under the base.

Hard-Boiled Eggs ★★★☆☆

The Maxi-Matic cooks seven eggs at maximum capacity. We were surprised by how well the small loop handles held up to a full load, but unfortunately, the taste wasn’t quite there. The white was about right, but the yolks were chalky and overcooked.

Soft-Boiled Eggs ★★☆☆☆

The soft-boiled eggs we got from this unit were not good at all. The whites were undercooked and still liquid on the inside. The yolks were warmed, but not substantially thickened, and slid off the test toast.

Poached Eggs ★☆☆☆☆

The Maxi-Matic has a tray that holds two eggs. Both were substantially undercooked, to the point where we couldn’t pick them up with a fork. The yolk was slightly thickened, but these were not edible.

Omelettes ★★☆☆☆

The omelette preparation, like the others in the test, came out as odd scrambled eggs. These came out overcooked and dry. Like the Cuisinart, the comparison is casino buffet eggs, but we move up from Downtown to the Strip with the Maxi-Matic.

Overall ★★★☆☆

In a way, the Maxi-Matic is the opposite of the Hamilton Beach. It’s a pleasure to work with, but the eggs aren’t very good. You might be able to tune in your own settings to get the eggs right, but there are better units out there. On balance, the Maxi-Matic EGC-007 is not recommended, but it’s better than some.

What We Liked

• Great design
• Pricepoint
• Measuring cup is clearly marked
• Comprehensive manual/recipes

What We Didn’t Like

• Poor poaching and omelette performance
• You'll need to learn how to use it to yield the best results

Ergonomics ★☆☆☆☆

The Hamilton Beach has one major problem — burns. For some reason, the inside of the lid builds up a ton of condensation, and every time we opened it up, somebody got burned somehow. The worst part was in the hard-boiled egg test when near-boiling water built up on the underside of the handle of the egg tray, for a surprise thumb burn. Our tests also had a lot of condensation drip onto the counter underneath the unit. Setting aside the burn problem, the capacity is medium: seven boiled eggs or three poached. The measuring cup carries a lot of information, but it is virtually unreadable. The raised frosted text can only be seen when you’re right on top of it, and it’s hard to find the right info without careful study. Final straw, the measuring cup is difficult to read. Note: The Hamilton Beach is the only cooker in our roundup that dose not require you to pierce the egg before cooking. So, if you're looking to do Easter eggs, this may be the one for you — even if it wasn't for us.

Hard-Boiled Eggs ★★★★☆

Aside from burning us in surprising ways, the Hamilton Beach turned out seven eggs that came out pretty well. The yolks were a bit overcooked and chalky, but the eggs were quite tasty.

Soft-Boiled Eggs ★★★★☆

These eggs came out pretty good. The white was a bit overcooked and rubbery, but the yolks were spot-on. The texture was extremely good in the buttered toast test.

Poached Eggs ★★☆☆☆

The Hamilton Beach poaching tray holds three eggs. Our test showed the same problem we’ve been having with excessive condensation and burns, and when we got the eggs out, the eggs were overcooked. Like the Cuisinart, they were closer to over-medium or beyond, with a set but jammy yolk. The shape looks a little more conducive to good poached eggs than the Cuisinart’s, so it might be possible to fiddle with the cooking time until the eggs come out right.

Overall ★★☆☆☆

Long story short, the boiled eggs are good, the burns are bad. I don’t want something in my kitchen that attacks me like this, and the way it drips water makes it much less usable outside the kitchen. There are better options here. The Hamilton Beach Model 25500 Electric Egg Cooker is not recommended.

What We Liked

• Good hard and soft boiled eggs
• Pricepoint

What We Didn’t Like

• Burns
• Hard to read measuring cup

Ergonomics ★★☆☆☆

The Cuisinart starts with a very big problem: the handles are right at the bottom of the lid, and when we lifted the lid off at the end of cooking, that’s exactly where the steam comes out. We got burned twice on that before learning that this has to be opened with a towel. The metal lid looks cool, but makes things worse. It gets very hot during cooking, so even with the towel it’s tough to handle. Just as bad, you can’t see the food, so you can’t monitor the food while cooking.

The maximum capacity is ten eggs, but it’s an awkward setup. The first seven eggs sit on a nice sturdy rack, then you set a small rack on top of those eggs, and balance another three eggs on that rack. All this is in support of a design that looks like a big metal egg. It looks cool, but the functionality takes a big hit.

The measuring cup is the best of the lot. It is clearly marked, easy to read, and gives you all the information you need to cook without digging into the manual. On the downside, the piercer does not have a cap, so you’ve got to be careful with it.

Hard-Boiled Eggs ★☆☆☆☆

We loaded up the maximum capacity of ten eggs with the appropriate amount of water. About 16 minutes in, it started spitting water out the top vent. After 20 minutes, the smell was getting bad, so we shut it down and moved the eggs to an ice bath. A bit of white had oozed out the pierced end and cooked to a rubbery mass, which we discarded. They were quite overcooked, with a sulfurous smell and a dry, crumbly yolk.

Soft-Boiled Eggs ★★★☆☆

This time the alarm did go off as expected, and we got two eggs in 7 minutes. Egg had blown out the top again. They were a bit overcooked, with a small ring of solid yolk around the outside.

Poached Eggs ★★☆☆☆

The Cuisinart can do four poached eggs at a time, but we loaded it up with two. They cooked in the time expected, but came out overcooked. The yolks were jammy and sliceable, closer to over-medium than poached.

The shape of the tray looks problematic. It is the same diameter as the other trays, but divided into four sections instead of two or three. The egg it produces is going to be thicker than the others, and a good bit thicker than our free-floating control group egg. Even with a bit of playing with the water level, I think it will be hard to get an egg that’s not overcooked or way under-cooked. The opaque lid exacerbates this problem, since you can’t monitor the egg as it cooks.

Omelettes ★☆☆☆☆

I would call the thing that came out of this unit loaded scrambled eggs rather than an omelette. Definitional problems aside, the egg-puck that we got was extremely overcooked. It tasted like the eggs at a third-rate casino buffet.

Overall ★★☆☆☆

Fundamentally, I can’t get past the bad ergonomics. There are better-designed models that don’t burn you, and the opaque lid means you can’t monitor the cooking process. The eggs weren’t great, and the best thing about this unit was the measuring cup. The Cuisinart CEC-10 Egg Central is not recommended.

What We Liked

• Well designed/marked measuring cup
• Comes with egg holders
• Quality parts

What We Didn’t Like

• Burns
• Water spews out the top
• Poor overall performance

Ergonomics ★☆☆☆☆

What does it profit a product to look like a big metal egg but lose everything else? Every time we picked this thing up, somebody got hurt. Like the Cuisinart, the handle is right at the base where the steam escapes, but it’s somehow even worse. The handle looks like the top half of an egg, and nests into the egg rack which has a handle that looks like the bottom of an egg. There’s a reason why nobody’s ever said something’s as easy to grab as the top of an egg. It’s really awkward to hold, especially while it’s burning you with steam, and there’s nowhere else to grab since the metal lid gets too hot to touch. That metal lid also means you can’t see inside to monitor cooking.

To add injury to injury (insult comes later), the piercer is on the egg tray opposite the handle. First, you can’t use it when either of the two nearest eggs is loaded, so to load the tray with all seven eggs, you have to set one aside while you pierce the last one. Worse, the tray is flimsy, and if the awkward egg-shaped handle starts to slip, where does your other hand naturally go? To the opposite side, with the thumb right on the piercer. Seriously, this thing is the worst.

Want the insult now? There’s no power switch. As we found when setting up all the cookers, it’s always on when plugged in. They couldn’t pony up the extra dime for a power switch? One good thing about the Müeller is the measuring cup, which is readable and useful.

Hard-Boiled Eggs ★★★★★

All that and this thing produced the best hard-boiled eggs of the test. Those yolks were absolutely perfect. All it took was getting burned and stabbed.

Soft-Boiled Eggs ★★☆☆☆

Maybe a flaw, maybe a fluke. One egg was good, with just a little ring of liquid white around a tasty yolk. The other egg was significantly undercooked, with a significant amount of liquid white and a yolk that was just starting to thicken up.

Poached Egg N/A

Müeller does not poach eggs.

Omelettes N/A

Müeller does not make omelettes.

Overall ★☆☆☆☆

Those great hard-boiled eggs do not make up for the terrible design of this egg cooker. Everything about the Müeller’s design is flawed, with some parts feeling actively wrong, as if the design was purposefully backwards. The Müeller Rapid Egg Cooker is emphatically not recommended.

What We Liked

• Great hard-boiled eggs

What We Didn’t Like

• Pin strategically designed to stab you
• Burns
• No on/off switch