Photos show how a hard-boiled egg looks depending on how you cook it

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• I made 24 hard-boiled eggs in two dozen ways to see how time and different cook methods can affect their texture, taste, and ease of peeling.
• Some people bring their water to a boil before dropping their eggs in the pot, while others start their eggs in cold water and then bring it to a boil, so I tried both methods.
• I compared the effects of using an ice bath — the purpose of which is to stop the egg from continuing to cook after it's removed from the water — to not using one.
• An ice bath is also supposed to make the egg easier to peel, but I didn't find that to be the case.

I make hard-boiled eggs quite often. They're a great ready-made snack, and a good way to use up eggs that might be nearing their expiration date.

My go-to method has always been to drop eggs into boiling water, reduce the heat to simmer, and let them sit for around 13 to 15 minutes, but there are so many different ways to make eggs. Doing some research, I found endless lists from different home cooks and celebrity chefs suggesting a myriad of methods.

To see how eggs would turn out when cooked in different ways, I set out to test three cooking methods at four different cook times.

For each method/time combination, I made two eggs, putting one in a 10-minute ice bath before peeling to see if it would make a difference. An ice bath stops the egg from continuing to cook after it's removed from the water, and is also meant to make peeling easier.

In each photo below, the egg on the left was peeled while warm, and the egg on the right was peeled after an ice bath. And it's worth noting that I used large eggs for this experiment, so the results might not look the same for you if you're using another size egg.