It was so satisfying. No egg shell crumbs to clean up. Feels like I’m playing breakfast in very easy mode.
Edit: It happened again, but this time I got a better photo.
Post reported. This is dullsters, not badassmotherfuckers
😅
That’s two pieces!
They’re connected. It was difficult to photograph the bridge clearly.
This morning it happened again.
Teach us your egg whispering ways
I’m still figuring out which steps actually matter and which don’t. Regardless, here’s the raw unrefined list of steps. I’m pretty sure most of these steps are unnecessary, but a few might be critical.
- Buy old eggs. I mean really old. So old the shopkeeper is about to toss them out the back door. My supermarket discounts these, and I suspect age helps the membrane detach from the albumen later.
- Refrigerate them. Then forget about them for a week (or at least several days). They’ll be well past their sell-by date, but still fine. This extra time lets more moisture evaporate, which might be important.
- Use a cheap egg cooker (mine’s from Lidl) with a measuring cup that has a dull needle. Poke a hole in the rounder end of each egg. That’s where the air bubble is. This lets expanding gases escape during cooking, preventing cracks.
- Load the cooker with 7 eggs, poked-end down.
- Add a little too much water. The eggs will cook fully, but the yolks might turn green. This might not even play a significant role, but that’s what I did last time.
- Let the cooker run dry and beep, then turn it off. Add about 20 ml of water to cool the hot surface.
- Get distracted with cat memes or superb owls on Lemmy. Forget the eggs exist.
- Remember the eggs 1-2 hours later. At least they’re no longer scorching hot.
- Refrigerate the eggs again.
- Peel one each morning. This means that the 7th egg gets to sit in the refrigerator even longer. In the meanwhile, even more evaporation occurs, which might help.
- Bonk the egg on the counter and roll it firmly to crush the shell into tiny pieces (still attached to the membrane).
- If done right, the membrane will tear around the equator, and the crushed shell will be flexible as it’s still held together only by the membrane. Rolling ensures the pieces are small enough to make the shell bendy.
- The bridge section connecting the two hemispheres will allow you to bend them apart. It’s like opening a lid of a box.
I did this once. I still have the photo lol
Become snek, swallow egg whole
Or a seagull. Ever seen how they swallow large fish? Actually, some are so ambitious that they literally bite off more than they can swallow.
Very nice! I have some weird texture issues and hate tiny shell bits.
I’ve been on a pickled egg kick lately and I like cooking them in the Instant Pot. Best consistently peeling eggs I’ve ever made, and I haven’t had any green yolks. I love it.
I got one of those super simple egg cookers, and it does a surprisingly good job. As long as you measure the water correctly, you get the consistency and texture you want.
Cracking the egg shell seems to play a role too. Nowadays, I just smack the boiled egg on the table, and roll it while applying enough pressure to break the shell. This way, there can be a long crack along the equator and the rest is crumbled to a hundred pieces which are held together by the membrane. Some luck is also required, but usually this method is a lot cleaner than any other method I’ve tried before.
My twin bought one of the simple egg machines and it works pretty well! I was surprised.
Yea, I’m shocked how cheap and simple these cookers are, but they still work so well. Talk about value for money.
I have seen those cookers but never had one. Me liking hardboiled eggs is a somewhat recent thing. Cold eggs never were very appealing to me.
I give them the same equator counter bonk and then peel them under running water. I’ll have to give the rolling method a shot next time.
Such a basic activity, yet we still have so many personal tips and tricks! 😄
Once met an old Somali guy who did that bonk and roll style. Turns out, it was not messy at all, and it made the whole process a lot easier too. He really knew what he was doing. My previous style of picking each tiny piece one by one was way too hard and slow.
Rolling the egg crushes the shell in such a way that you get lots of small pieces that are still attached to the membrane. With this S-tier method, removing the shell is about as easy as peeling an orange.
I can only hope to pass along something so useful someday. Thank you, wise old Somali!
I skimmed the thread. Use eggs very close to their printed expiration date and they will be easier to peel. The membrane separates from the albumen a lot easier. Sometimes if I want deviled eggs I plan a few weeks ahead and buy eggs in advance.
Have an ice water bath ready for eggs that are done boiling as well. I don’t really have an explanation for that one. Maybe the coldness hardens the whites enough to where they break less during the peeling process. I know it stops the yolk from continuing to cook so you can better control that outcome.
I live near a brewery that has smoked pickled eggs. I’m not much of a drinker but the cravings for the pickled eggs send me there often enough.
Sounds oddly familiar. I think I might have heard something like that before. Older eggs are easier to peel or something.
Oversalt the boiling water before boiling the egg. It helps the shell detach.
I got the cheapest egg boiler and it came with a tiny cup you use for measuring the water. The bottom of it has a short dull needle you can use to poke a hole at the round end of the egg before boiling. Yes, I read the instructions.
Next, you place the eggs into the machine with the hole pointing down. This way, steam can probably enter the hole, which does something. Don’t know what, but the end result is that the shell comes off rather easily.
I searched it quick to see if the poking is another tip to make it peel easier, but I came across this old Lifehacker article testing non-poked, poked on the pointy end, and poked on the (supposed proper) blunt end.
The hole in the fat end lets the air bubble escape. This seems to prevent cracking, as the expanding hot air has a place to escape, and also, I think more importantly for some tasks, lets the fat end of the cooking egg expand. This should leave you with 2 nice round ends of the egg, making a more aesthetic presentation. (I’m curious to see if you can confirm this!)
The pointy side poke led to cracks and peeling mess in the article, and the non-poked eggs were now unattractive compared to the properly pricked ones now that the author could look at both side by side.
Poked and peeled. Yes, “poked eggs” is a thing now.
Sadly, the yolk came out greenish. Less water next time. These eggs were also a bit old, which has resulted in evaporation, making the bubble larger. Anyway, the bubble didn’t end up being massive. Could be because there was space to expand.
Very elegantly peeled, but the blunt egg looks much like my non-poked ones, at least from this angle. Very interesting… 🤔
Yeah, that bubble never fully disappears. I should probably buy some very fresh eggs that have only a tiny bubble to begin with. I have a feeling there’s always going to be some air in there. Even if the white stuff expands, it’s not going to expand enough to fill that cavity entirely.
Oh man. The satisfaction you must have felt. Hard boiled eggs troll me every time.
An egg farmer told me to add vinegar to the water when boiling eggs and for whatever reason it’s worked great for us for years.
Never a single peel like this one though…
How much vinegar or does it matter?
I eyeball it. I aim for like 75% water, 25% white vinegar
Thanks for the tip. I’ll try it.
Glorious day!
Can confirm. Only way to make this day better would require curing cancer and ending all wars.
