Never understood the trouble with peeling an egg. Push it down on a cutting board or counter top, roll it to crack all the way along the center, the shell comes off in 2 pieces.

Depends, sometimes the shell fuses to the white, causing you to have to rip each piece off. Why? Maybe fresh eggs or improper technique, not sure, but you will hate life when it happens.

Is that not just trying to peel the shell away from the skin-like membrane? I just make sure that I split the membrane and the whole shell comes away with it

I don't mind doing this. It is kinda fun actually. I used to do dozens of them for fun to make pickled eggs. I didn't even eat them.

Don't understand why people peel eggs. Just crack them open and put them in one of those egg holders.

*Downvoted for this? Ah Lemmy is fun.

Often the membrane itself fuses with the egg's white, causing it to rip out part of the egg when peeled.

A steamer is crucial for easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs. I steam for 9 minutes for a not-fully-cooked center but you can steam for 12 minutes for fully cooked. Place the steamed eggs in an ice bath and transfer to the refrigerator for at least half an hour. This is the most reliable method I've found for peelability and consistent doneness.

fuck you now I want pickled eggs :<

update: i drove to get pickled eggs but the store only had pickled quail eggs and apparently that's not quite as good

I just eat them whole. They have a satisfying crunch

The trick is to "shock" the eggs. Whenever they are done boiling, place them in cold water. Some people use an ice bath, but I've always seen that as overkill. What I do is run the cold tap, get my pot and drain it while keeping the eggs under the stream of cold water. It only takes a few seconds, after which you can take out the eggs and they will dry right away because the inside is still hot.

The idea is to rapidly cool the hard outer shell, which causes it to contract. This releases the inside of the shell from the egg white.

Calcium!

If you want eggs that peel easily everytime boil the water first then put the eggs in. Once the water begins to boil again turn the heat down so it's a very slow boil.

You will need to let your eggs warm up to room temperature if you keep them in the fridge or else some may break open when you put them in the boiling water.

Generally older eggs work better for hard boiling because the gaseous membrane will expand and give you a better purchase/seperation when peeling

A small amount of lemon juice like a slice of lemon will help soften the shells to make it easier.

The perfect boiled egg takes roughly 9 minutes submerged in boiling water

I peel my eggs by cracking them on the air pocket then peeling the rest of the shell off using my thumb (not the nail) under running cold water.

You learn to get good at peeling eggs when you have another grown man threatening to stab you to death if you don't do it fast enough.

-A chef

You learn to get good at peeling eggs when you have another grown man threating to stab you to death if you don’t do it fast enough.

EHHHHHHHH 😰

-A chef

Oh, okay.

When that happens, I have a perfectly shaped coffee spoon that I slide in between the shell and the egg and with one swift twirling motion (I guess?) it breaks the rest of the egg free. The movement is like scooping up icecream.

I went back to a desk job recently and I'm not used to how cordial and polite everyone is.

I kinda miss it, maybe I have a masochist side I don't know about.

Some people don't know one can spoon out an egg. Smh me head

teaspoon

Likewise. I part time health inspect and part time desk job, and the contrast is night and day. In one job, it's a game as to figuring out how many lies they've told me and where things are hidden (found a big knife once wedged underneath a steel prep bench??? Found a toilet cistern once mounted on the walk-in cooler wall to catch the condensate???), and the other is crunching numbers and other money things.

Kinda miss going in to as many restaurants as I used to finding the weirdest things (male fertility medication in the kitchen???) and hearing the weirdest excuses.

The best and the worst.

I love how this comment section consists of advice for peeling eggs that are all in direct conflict with each other.

Former chef here, too. It's hard to get motivated without the threats.

I usually just drop it on the floor a few times.

just give the egg to the dog

you don't have to worry about the egg now. it's the dog's problem.

just use an electric kettle

-A dude with an electric kettle

I honestly wonder whether there exists a single topic with more collective human advice available.

Like one of these?

Other people said some of this but I'm going to put it here for easy grokking:

• Use old eggs if you can.
• Pinch of salt in the water helps heal cracks in the egg shells so they don't always spill out into the water.
• Put cold eggs directly into boiling water. This means that you should make sure you achieve a rapid boil before putting eggs in.
• Put boiled eggs directly into cold water, either by pouring cold water on them or by moving them into an ice bath.
• Smack and roll the eggs on the counter, then peel.

I boil eggs every day for my family and this has been a tried and true method for us. It's solved all my egg peeling sorrows.

Yup.

Got it, yeah that’s for soft boiled eggs vs hard boiled eggs you peel to incorporate into a dish vs a standalone meal.

You can use them for hard boiled lol, I use it for hard boiled eggs every day. But yes if you need to peel for a different dish, but the context of this is to eat straight.

Oh okay I’ve only ever thought of those egg holders for containing a runny yolk upright.

Relationship advice was my immediate thought. There's an entire industry around it: magazines, books, websites, etc, and all of that information is wrong!

What you really need to do is...

What I do is a hit the outside of the egg with the back of a spoon until it's all spiderweb cracked.

Then at the bottom (the fat end where the air bubble is) pock the tip of the spoon in and slide it under the membrane the it "spoons" the egg underneath he shell. Then you just twist the egg around the spoon and it seperate a the shell. Once you've done a rotation, lever the spoon away to split the membrane and the shell usually just falls away to a clean egg.

Very good thought!

Running eggs under tap while peeling is the single biggest thing you can do, also the simplest. Only do all the other stuff if that doesn't work.

Yeah this shit doesnt work lmao (pls halp 😭)

Srs tho, ive done this and still have tons of problems peeling them. I don't get it.

Dog frew up egg everywhere

well i guess it's your problem again

More of a filter coffee and eggs kinda guy but I dig it.

former

once you've been threatened for water not boiling fast enough, aren't you kind of always a chef?

my wife tells me poached eggs are the worst in professional kitchens, but i have this huge wide mouthed electric kettle we can boil like a dozen eggs in at a time. it means cleaning out the kettle, but poaching eggs is so damn easy in that thing. bring it up to boil, turn it off, wait for the bubbles to stop, crack in an egg, wait three minutes, pretty damn good poached egg.

i am an electric kettle evangelist though because people out here in the San Francisco bay area don't seem to understand their utility.

Very fresh eggs are harder to peel when they are hard boiled. Boil eggs closer to the expiration date for an easier time. Older eggs also have one end filled with air, and you can crack that end to get a good starting place to peel from.

Last time i did it, the eggs were legit past their best-by date lol I did the bowl of cold water method and still struggled.

No the method described above is best. Crack and roll, scare the boiled egg in cold water first

I just want to go back to the way my life was before this happened

I don't want to say your method is wrong in any way but wanted to piggyback and add my own that I've exclusively used for over a decade.

Steamer basket in a large pot, water up to just below basket. Bring to a rolling boil so it's generating steam. I do this in a steel pot with the lid on and when the lid starts to vibrate and jingle a little I know it's creating steam pressure in there and ready.
Then Costco eggs straight from the fridge into the basket, put the lid back on, leave the heat on high to maintain the boil.
12 minutes.
As soon as the 12m time is up, straight into an ice bath in a bowl I normally prepare during the last 5 minutes so it has time to chill the water.
That's it.

It's seriously been flawless for me every time, hundreds of times. I'm known for bringing deviled eggs to parties and people legit get upset if I don't. Not only is the yolk cooked perfectly but they peel easily with just a single tap on the counter on the smallest tip and then I peel around with my thumb. They look like some Martha Stewart shit, I'm pretty proud.

Hope this helps somebody

I cut the egg in half , then use a spoon to in one pull take the entire half of the egg out of its Shell
I always thought every one did the same because it was obvious to me and extremally easy

Try not to use a bowl, but a running tap. With a bowl a small layer of warm water might form around and in between the eggs, preventing the egg from cooling down fast enough. Which is probably why people tend to use ice baths, to get that initial shock as big as possible. In my experience a running tap for 10 secs does the trick.

But sometimes eggs are just cursed, not much you can do about those.

That ruins the eggsperience

Oh wow I didn't know you were serious, that's kinda cool I like it. I usually boil the kettle at home and pour it into a pot on the stove to poach my eggs quickly

Poached eggs can be a nightmare, you've got this giant pot of vinegary water you're always scrapping scum out of, if someone bombs it with too many at once it just fucks the temperature and the eggs emulsify in the water like someone splooged in the bath, gotta get a new pot on asap which takes up another burner that could be used for other shit

You're generally using shitty eggs because of costs so the rate of failure in terms of them looking/being bad is 1/3, you have to crack an extra egg everytime otherwise the whole dish mistimes and fucks up.
Great if you're on a bulk though

Then youve gotta stir the pot in a calm and pretty level manner before cracking the eggs in, which is hard to do amongst all the chaos. Something about calmly stirring a pot of vinegar cum water in that environ does challenge your inner resolve.