I always thought the only reason to start the egg in cold water and then boil it was to keep it from cracking -- the pin in the egg bum does the same.

I personally think that a four minute egg is better. You need to have a certain amount of liquidity in the yolk, but you want the white firmish and not runny (I agree, yuck yolk). The liquidity in the yolk is so that you can stick your cut pieces of toast in. If you can't do that, the whole boiled egg exercise is pointless -- might as well hard boil them and put them in your lunchbox.

yours,

Peter T.