The royal egg

It can be difficult to cook a boiled egg so that the consistency of the yolk is just right. So many factors come into play: the size of the egg, the freshness of the egg, the time elapsed since the egg was taken out of the fridge and the fact that the egg goes on cooking even after it has been lifted out of the boiling water. So I can well understand the system adopted by Prince Charles' household, as revealed by The Guardian:

"According to Jeremy Paxman, the TV presenter and author, the prince is particularly fond of a boiled egg after a day's hunting. "Because his staff were never quite sure whether the egg would be precisely to the satisfactory hardness, a series of eggs was cooked, and laid out in an ascending row of numbers. If the prince felt that number five was too runny, he could knock the top off number six or seven."

No, I don't myself use such a system. But I'm not a prince of the realm, am I?