1 to 4 eggs in 2 quarts cold water. Bring just to boil over high heat, turn off the heat, clap on a lid and let sit for 17 minutes. Put the eggs in ice water for 2 minutes while bringing the cooking water back to the boil. Transfer eggs to boiling water for 10 seconds and return to ice water for 15 to 20 minutes.
This does two things for you: by not maintaining the boil while the eggs cook, the ugly unappetizing green ring around the outside of the yolk doesn’t happen. If you don’t care about that boil away. By cooling, reheating, and cooling the eggs, you loosen them from the shell making them easier to peel.
The idea is to expand/contract/expand/contract to loosen the membrane from the inside of the shell. The strategy is less effective the less fresh your eggs are.
Part of the original article (and the rather old one that proceed it) deal with this. The basic idea is that changing the pH of the water will have some effect on the shell or the membrane under it. It doesn’t really seem to have an effect. But adding vinegar to water for poached eggs will cause the white to tighten quicker, making it easier to pull off without the egg dissolving. Maybe that’s the source of confusion. Works without the shell, maybe it will work with?
It might pay to link through to, or read, the original source. Rather than running with some one else’s gimmicky summation. Its hardly “one weird trick” for anything. None the less eggs that are easy to peel. Its a rather carefully tested technique for producing properly cooked hard boiled eggs, that are also easy to peel more often. Along the way several supposed “weird tricks” for the same are disproved. Including pricking the bottom of the egg (not intended to render easy pealing or propper cooking, but to remove the air pocket), pressure cookers, and baking.
I was going to find a link or two with a photo for you, so I went to Amazon and found so many different brands that it seemed silly to pick out just one. Just google “egg boiler” and enjoy the diversity of options.
I myself use this one, but got it from an outlet mall store during a sale many years ago so it was something like $10 at the time. Does up to 7 eggs at a time (2 if you’re poaching).
I recently found that the problem isn’t in making the eggs easy to peel, but rather in the peeling method.
Most people peel eggs with their fingers, from what I’ve seen. I recently saw someone at work peeling HB eggs with a spoon. Just crack it, pick enough away with the spoon, and slide the spoon under the shell. The spoon shape matches nicely with the curve of the egg, and you can easily get under the shell by gently pressing on the egg. And then just lift. Easy!
No more specs, no egg bits stuck to the shell. It’s also tons faster – I peeled 6 eggs in about 90 seconds!
I keep chickens, and I always put my eggs in boiling water, never start them from cold. The only thing that makes them easier to peel is age; older eggs peel more easily.
Right it doesn’t work. I don’t think it even penetrates or effects the shell. But with the right amount of vinegar in a smaller volume of water and a cracked egg it does have an effect. So people are potentially assuming vinegar or baking soda have some sort of magic effect on eggs regardless of whether there’s a plausible reason to believe it would. Same deal with salting the water. Egg shells are water resistant, so your basically just seasoning the shell. Which your talking off so why bother.
