Alton Brown shares his trick for cooking perfect hard-boiled eggs. He notes you should use fresh eggs as they have more moisture. He reduces a pot full of boiling water to about half an inch of water, lowers the heat to low and adds a steamer basket to the pot. He recommends adding a minimum of four eggs to the basket. When it starts to steam, he puts the lid back on and sets a timer for 12 minutes. As soon as the eggs are cooked, Alton transfers them to an ice bath. After five minutes in the ice bath, he starts peeling the eggs. First he cracks it on the table, then rolls it around to crack more of the shell and make it easier to peel, revealing a perfectly cooked hard-boiled egg.