Boiled Eggs: Do you prefer them soft or hard?

I used to have salt on them but that is very very bad for us so I don't add it to anything any more. Free range and organic are obviously best if you can get them but, maybe this is selfish of me, when I can get 15 large eggs for £1.50 from the supermarket, why would I pay double that for only 6 medium ones?

I know how horrible it is for those poor battery chickens. The thing is, it IS possible to produce free range more cheaply. There is a third type of chicken farm you know. One where they can house lots of chickens but they can still go outside and have plenty of space. Have you ever been on a budget so tight that you couldn't afford to pay the extra for the sake of the animals? Again, maybe this is me being selfish but feeding my family is more important than the life of a chicken. If farmers were willing to sell more cheaply (and they could, despite what some of them say) then I would be more willing to go out of my way to buy free range. I sometimes get free range from the supermarket but I don't know if they really are free range of course.

{Taps out pipe on the hearth. Adjusts tie and beams at the young lady seeking wisdom about chucky eggs} Imagine if you will that you are lying on your bed at home. You are lovely and warm, everything is wonderful. In comes your friend and lies beside you. That's OK. You still have plenty of room. Then in comes another friend, then another. :"Hang on" you cry, there's four of us on here, it is getting a little crowded.Then another two friends come and lie beside you. Six on one double bed. You can barely move but you find that you cannot get off the bed. You want to wee. But there is no way of getting to the bathroom. You're hungry, but all that you have is a little conveyer belt with a mix of hormones and ground grot running past one end of the bed. You cannot move really but to reach the food. Days pass like this. You get tetchy with your friends because they do all their business all over you and their conversation has worn thin. All that you can do is eat and drink the water that runs alongside your feed conveyor. That's the life of a battery hen that produces eggs every day for you at £1.50 for 15. Free range hens live in comparative freedom with room to roam and whilst they lay fewer eggs, and their feed, which is better for them, is more expensive, you should pay about £2.50 per dozen. I like chickens and like eggs. But I wouldn't want to knowingly treat them poorly just to have my Sunday tea. The question you perhaps might ask yourself is "why am I only paying £1.50 for 15 eggs. What do they do to produce them that cheaply?" {Picks up pipe and prepares for an ear bashing}.

I agree with you there. I think hard boiled eggs can be a bit too powdery but I never thought about the possibility of choking. As for health information, you are probably right about that. I would think that salmonella would be more common in sloppy eggs. Soft boiled is fine as long as you can be sure they are still cooked. Thanks for your response. :)

Well, I almost always get chocked eating eggyolk when it's hard-boiled. Probably because I eat it plain. But if I put it in a salad that's fine.

I have just eaten a boiled egg and for what I am sure is the first time in my life, I did not have soldiers with it! It is of course better for us to not have the soldiers. Eggs need to be runny for them otherwise there is no point. You can't dunk soldiers in a solid yolk! I once tried to make an omelette and it turned out to be some sort of egg-mushroomy mush! It tasted great though and was made entirely with readily available ingredients!

I kind of think like that. I used to like runny eggs (well, I still do) but I have to do them hard because I can't get them to that stage where they are cooked but still a little bit runny!