Sometimes even the easiest of things can have a difficult side to them.  Boiling an egg?  Who couldn’t do that? But peeling a hard boiled egg can be a different story altogether.  I have had a method for years that has worked almost without fail with of course a few exceptions and that was usually when I altered my process for one reason or another.  This happened on an occasion not that long ago when we moved up here to the beautiful north and became completely off grid. Something had changed and I needed to figure out what because when it came to peeling my boiled eggs about all I was able to accomplish was completely aggravating myself and wanting to squeeze the infuriating egg that was already resting in my hand through my fingers to release the stress that had been caused by a mere egg! The shell was affectionately attached to the egg and no bit of coaxing would make it release itself without taking some of it’s love (the egg white) with it. What was worse it that the shell would come off in pieces smaller then a pencil eraser.  I had been a housewife and cook since 1989, as my husband would say “this was not my first rodeo”!  I had not encountered this problem for years and having chickens for years we had partaken of a good many hard boiled eggs over that time. My successful method most often would bring the shell off in 2 to 3 pieces this however, no longer being the case,  I had to stop and reevaluate what had happened to change this success rate.  Once I got the problem worked out and went back to my original method with a slight adjustment to it, peeling eggs was once again easy peasy, as the British would say!  It also brought me to thinking if a seasoned egg peeler, such as myself,  could have this problem then maybe others out there who were not so seasoned or who just lost their egg peeling groove might appreciate this tutorial on something so easy yet possibly equally as frustrating.

 

First you must have eggs. Honestly it doesn’t matter if they are fresh from the hen or cold in your ice box or room temp or store bought.  I know many who have conquered this most of intimidating of dragons have their method and swear by them (hmmm…just as I do) but for me I found that age and temperature of the egg matter nothing, the secret is in the processing and ESPECIALLY, FOR CERTAIN, in the cooling.

Make sure your water is boiling before the eggs go in.

Add about a teaspoon of salt to the water prior to putting your eggs in.  Make sure you have enough water in there to cover your eggs. If you put your eggs in and find you do not, do not add cold water to them. If you happen to have a tea kettle going and it is boiling you can add more water that way but if not, just leave the water level where it is at and make a mental note to increase your water level in your pot the next time.

Because the water is boiling be careful!  You obviously can’t just put an egg in with your fingers or you stand a great chance of burning yourself. If you drop the egg you stand just as great of a chance of cracking the egg.

I use the method shown here.  When the egg is in the spoon, I gently rest it against the side of the pot and slide it into the boiling water.  I take special pains when bringing the spoon back out of the water that I do not bring any boiling water with.

Once the eggs are in bring your water back to a boil, this is best done by placing the lid back on the pot, however if  you do that you must be careful to make sure the water doesn’t end up boiling between the pot and the lid. I understand this seems like a lot of unnecessary safety information to some of you but sometime people who are not comfortable in the kitchen don’t know these things and sometimes those that are comfortable in the kitchen do not think about these things because they are comfortable. 

The time you want your eggs boiling is up to you.  Some like them soft boiled some like them hard boiled.  This peeling process works with either.

Once boiled, because I used a cast iron pot, and cast of course retains heat, I remove the eggs right away from the pot they boiled in to a bowl using the same method I used to put the eggs into the pot, just in reverse.

 

Here is the important part of getting your eggs to peel freely, it is all in the cooling. DO NOT let your eggs cool in the water you boiled them in or at room temp out of water. You want to cool your eggs with fresh water just enough to make them easy to handle when peeling.  The inside should still be too hot to want to eat in an egg salad sandwich but not so hot that it is uncomfortable to hold. You NEED to run water over the eggs. This can be room temperature or cold tap water.   This is where I faltered when we moved here. I no longer had cold running water and having previously had well water I thought the “cold” water was what was important. Once up here and having only room temp water I did one of 2 things,  I would let them cool naturally in the water they were boiled in or I would pour that off and do the room temp water a few times and then let them cool completely after that in or out of water, I tried both.  Each time ended in disaster.  Then one day the light bulb when off and I poured 3 to 4 rounds of room temp water over them, with each round pouring it off, cooling the eggs slightly with each round.  

I roll them around with each change making sure they get the most cooling effect from each change of water.

The whole process of cooling takes less then 5 minutes.  Then I either crack the eggs on the side of my bowl or on each other.  I make sure that I get completely around the entire egg including on the ends when cracking.

More times then not the egg will slide right out…………….

Leaving the shell in 2 to 3 pieces.

 

 

EASY PEASY!!

What do I contribute the success to in this method?  There is a thin layer of membrane or skin between the shell and the egg.  When the cool water is poured over the eggs I believe it shrinks away from the egg and pulls closer to the shell. At that time it is still very lose and slippery. If the egg is allowed to cool too long it either drys out as it lays against the egg and/or in a sense binds back to the egg. This is my unscientific explanation of years of observation…..but in the end I suppose it could be considered science since science should be based on observation 🙂

We have a video of this over on our youtube page where you can see me walk through the instructions on this as well as see several eggs peel the same way. I will put the video right below if you are interested.

Lea