How do you make the perfect hard boiled egg?

I don't think it's a silly question! I used to struggle with boiling eggs. The mistakes I used to make were dropping the eggs into boiling water and boiling them at a heat that was too high. When I dropped the eggs into the boiling water, I'd often crack them because I dropped them from too high (I didn't want to put my fingers near the boiling water). And if the eggs weren't cracked after I dropped them, they'd often crack because the heat was too high and the bubbling water would crack the eggs. Now, I put the eggs in before bringing the water to a boil and I use a soft boil so that the eggs don't get tossed around.

I find success in boiling eggs in general, whether they're soft-boiled or hard-boiled. And number one, the fresher the eggs are, the better. Number two, you need to make sure your water is heavily salted. And you want to put the eggs in room-temperature water, and then bring them up to a boil. That's going to make your eggs much easier to peel. When you remove them, you want to cool them down as quickly as possible by running cool water over them. I continue to allow the cool water to run while I peel them.