Ah - awesome topic!
6.5 min out of the fridge into the pot (rolling boil - 1" water) does it for me!
There is still significant variation depending on egg size. This is something you cannot change with procedure - only time will make up for a larger / smaller egg.
I still struggle with # of eggs boiled - best way around this for me is using a very large pot, so the thermal mass is large and the temperature does not drop significantly, no matter if you put 2 or 8 eggs.
I am a huge soft boiled egg fan - no weekend goes by without at least one breakfast and 2 eggs for me! I bought a digital timer about a year ago and it has improved results greatly. I have been near-divorce over this, getting my wife to follow procedure.
I used to own one of these egg timer devices that are a plastic transparent egg showing the yoke status on a scale inside. Worked very well too - but these stink pretty badly - something is out-gassing from the polymer when you boil them - I don't want that in my food ...
Man, I am ready for the weekend! (Weekdays are oatmeal days
)
G