One weird trick for making easy-to-peel boiled eggs

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I am not sure you can afford to make that joke.

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“One weird trick…”

What is this, BuzzBoing?

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Add a tablespoon of vinegar to the water to prevent the shells from cracking.

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I’ve never really had much difficulty peeling hard boiled eggs. Methinks this is another example of ye olde inventing-a-problem-in-order-to-sell-someone-a-solution.

Poke a tiny hole into the broad end with a straight pin before you cook them. I have a hard time with some eggs but this works every time.

And seriously, “one weird trick?” Come the fuck on.

Next up: “the NSA hates this man. Find out who it is after the jump, after watching the video and after giving us your children’s blood type!!!”

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hmmmmm…my next deviled egg experiment.

It’s not really difficult to peel them, but with some batches it seems like little bits of the egg tear off with the shell no matter how careful you are. It’s annoying and feels wasteful. Other times the shell seems loose and slips off easily. Maybe you’re a natural.

As a couple of posters mentioned at the link, a dedicated egg boiler is actually worth considering. They’re very small, cheap, brainless to operate, and cook soft, medium, hard, and poached eggs consistently. A lot less energy and water use, too.

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Maybe you’ve never boiled a really fresh egg? Eggs sold in grocery stores may be weeks old, and the aging process makes them easier to peel than ones that are a few hours to a few days out of the hen’s butt.

I disagree.

Self-aware humor is the best kind of humor.

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Ooooooo I’ll try that!

I do a lot of pickled eggs ( for friends and my local club ) and they look horrible if they are all torn up!

As mentioned in the comments, really fresh eggs are the worst for this…

Peel them before boiling.

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I’ve seen two basic approaches to making hardboiled eggs - either you put them in boiling water and cook for ~10 min, or put them in cold water, bring to boil, and cook them for less time. (There’s also a cold water, bring to boil, turn off and wait until cool variant if you’re not in a hurry.)
Putting them in boiling water really does seem to make them easier to peel.

A dedicated egg boiler is actually a thing? Like, for realz?
(it isn’t, is it? Damn you)

Egads! They’re even vaguely affordable.

My defence is every last shopping channel, ever. Come on,there’s still an outside chance they exist, dammit.

I also hear references sometimes to boiled, salted water, but it seems to me that a tablespoon of vinegar or a dash of salt at that level of dilution will have a minimal effect on whatever happens within. How is it supposed to work?

Use a pressure cooker. The shells always come right off. I do up a dozen at a time that way.

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Thank you very much for this eggsellent post. I know you meant the title as a yolk but it is one weird trick. Maybe someone can mansplain it to me, in science.

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