This picture shows how well these implements work.
A problem when puncturing an egg is that it is easy to accidentally break part of the shell creating too large a hole. These little wonders support the shell against the force of the needle and make sure the angle is a full 90º so it will puncture but not shatter.
I use these. (And no, I never clean it and I use unwashed eggs too. Still alliv…arghhhhiuyvjghbkg)
I have always been warned that dunking hot eggs in cold water is a terrible idea. It will turn the yolks green. Which is purely cosmetic but some people do not like them. I’ve eaten green yolks but can’t say why they were green. Is this an old wives’ tale? Or are you all cool with the change of colour?
Obligatory.
Sulphur from the whites, iron from the yolks.
What about the ham?
Well. duh! Of course the yolks will come out soft.
You can leave eggs in cold water for ANY amount of time and the yolks will come out soft.
So will the whites.
(You did not mention heating the water. Or the volume of water. Or how quickly to bring to the boil. Or several other variables. So… nice anecdote.)
The author here feeling a need to sterilize an implement for somehting that’s then being dropped into boiling water gave me a good chuckle. I mean, what is going to survive that? Are your tacks covered in disease-causing extremophiles?
Also, in addition to the tools mentioned above, just … you know, keep a tack, or safety pin, or literally anything else small and cheap with a sharp point in a kitchen drawer, and don’t use it for anything else. Saves the “hassle” of finding one (as if that’s less work than peeling an egg with a sticking shell …).
Oh, and I agree with everyone above saying puncturing the shell is as much for preventing cracking (due to the gas pocket within the egg expanding) as it is for easier peeling.
That is dependent on the size of your pan, the volume of water, the amount of eggs, and the power of your stovetop/burner, as well as wether you’re using a lid or not. Putting the egg into cold water removes any semblance of general validity of the timing and methods involved, as you’re introducing uncontrolled variables galore, and you can’t account for the variability between various stoves.
Yeah, I don’t get the sarcasm either. I lived in Germany and we had an egg poker as pictured, but even poked something about my preferred brand of Minnesota eggs makes them super hard to peel. I love the steam and shock method, and we often do 14-16 eggs at a time because they last so long and are such an easy, tasty, snack. The steam and shock method works so well for me because my steamer is really big, so I can do a lot of eggs easily, and the timing is super simple since you wait till the water is steaming before putting the basket of eggs in. Clean up is effortless too.
ooh yeah boil the water for those eight minutes that covers the egg…
I still have find a way to peel the shell as the shell is usually too to handle… so
have been trying to cook (grilling) white of egg on toast while cooking the yoke in
hottish water for sum of about a minute…
it’s just finding ways to put everything…
try this for size…
That still doesn’t eliminate the variables - “water to cover the egg” can vary massively depending on the size of your pan, and if you meant 8 minutes after reaching a boil that just ignores the (highly varying) time to reach the boiling point. So, sorry, but that “technique” doesn’t describe much of anything outside of your very specific case.
I think we are on the same wavelength about the
I alluded to above.
(My first draft of that post was much more brutal. You’re getting there!) 
Seems like there’d be a market for such a thing.
It’s from over cooking, think it’s sulfur compounds doing a thing. Tends to go hand in hand with that fart smell and a chalky texture.
It’s just easier to overcook an egg if you start in cold water. But dunking them in cold or ice water (or running the faucet over them) will kill the heat and stop the cooking. So unless you’ve already overcooked your egg it’ll prevent the green ring.
My mom has one of these and it works great! Except it’s boring black plastic, not sweet mint-green like yours.
Unrelated and unnecessary background: My partner and I moved in with my mother for the duration of the pandemic (Mom lives alone, is 89, and has dementia). I brought my nine chickens with me.
They’re my (outdoor) pets, as ironically my household went vegan several years after getting the chickens.
Luckily Mom loves eggs, and the package delivery people here are happy to take the odd dozen, which we leave in a cooler on the porch as a thank-you.
My mum taught me to pierce eggs with a safety pin purely to stop them exploding while boiling (problem with older eggs absorbing air through the porous shell). It just stops the buggers exploding like a claymore mine. But then this was the late 70s and we made our own entertainment.
Umm, I suspect that was the joke…
I came here to suggest the use of a drill press and a tiny drill bit.
I left with a deeper appreciation of the fact that a lot of people (myself excluded) like hard-boiled eggs.
…all I’m saying is if you find five minutes give it a go…
I tried this on a whim so it’s still up in the air… so to speak
this all started from how to stop cracking… and this article is
about neutral methods
