Welcome to Celebrity Chef, a column from Refinery29 where we embark on a culinary mission to find, make, and try recipes and food hacks from our favorite stars. No flavor combination is too wacky, no tip or trick too bold, and no questionable creation goes un-tasted.
Remember last week when Drew Barrymore essentially proclaimed her status as a full on culinary sorceress, in addition to superstar, mom, and entrepreneur? A.k.a. she dropped some unbelievable hard boiled egg hack knowledge on her Instagram account — and we were absolutely bewitched. For a bit of a refresher, let's take a peek at Barrymore's post below where she shows us a pic of her no-flame, hot water, hard boiled egg in just 15 minutes. Say what?!
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As someone who has a colorful history of loving (yet also toiling over, hard boiled eggs), Barrymore's hack and apparently ideal cooked-yolk results were like an enchanting kitchen siren song. It was nearly impossible to resist everything that this easy Instagram post promised. The only problem was that her post didn't really provide directions per se. All I had to work with was the seemingly succinct caption, "Next snack, 15 minute hard boil in hot water, no flame." And so I went home, and I worked with it. When breaking down the star's steps there were two options to play at when interpreting how on earth you make a hard boiled egg with no flame: hot water from the tap and hot water from the microwave. I went first with tap; running it until it reached it hottest possible point, submerging the lone egg, and covering it for a magical 15 minute period as I sat by eagerly awaiting the magical results. The timer went off and I was like a kiddo on Christmas morning — until I cracked through the slimy membrane and raw egg oozed out. Barrymore magic: 1, NYC hot tap water: 0.
But I resolved to push on, to still believe in the boiled egg magic, with some microwave-powered hot water. Because the caption did not specify that the water be boiling, simply "hot", I popped a mug of the stuff into the microwave for two minutes until it was sufficiently steaming. And then proceeded on to drop in another lone egg, cover, and await the 15 minute marker. The results? Not good, not good at all.
Did I made some grave misstep in deciphering Barrymore's caption? Did I lack the magic touch? Drew, if you're reading this, throw us a boiled bone! How do you make a hardboiled egg without a stove?! Or maybe you really are magic and we are mere muggles.
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