Douglas Ford, sous-chef of LA’s Lucques, always uses farm-fresh eggs when he cooks, insisting that they taste different than mass-produced ones. He adds some vinegar to the boiling water (it makes the shell easier to remove later), and then cooks an average-sized egg for 8 minutes. A smaller egg only needs 7 minutes, and a larger egg, like a duck egg, needs up to 9 minutes to reach the perfect consistency.