# Hard Boiled Eggs



## HHH Knives (Mar 31, 2013)

Hello and Happy Easter. Its been a great day. good food, some family time. and I even slipped into the shop for a couple hours this afternoon. :spiteful:

I have a question. Every year on Easter we cook a dozen or 2 eggs. EVERY year the shells stick and by the time I get the shell off these things Im ready to throw them in the garbage. There must be something I am doing wrong. or some trick that will assure the shells will come off easily the next day. 

I feel stupid for asking this question. But if I dont find out I may never enjoy a hard boiled egg again.  

Thanks in advance for the input.

Blessings
Randy


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## JohnnyChance (Mar 31, 2013)

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/showthread.php/6117-Egg-Cooking-Technique-Secrets


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## HHH Knives (Mar 31, 2013)

Thanks Johnny. I already make a mean soft boiled egg., and do poached good enough for my needs. Make a great omelet..  I normally dont have a problem with eggs the day they are made. Its only on Easter when they sit overnight after boiling and then need to be peeled. 

Ill read through that thread again. and follow some of the links. maybe I will find my answers there./ maybe not. either way I will learn something.

Good night


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## EdipisReks (Mar 31, 2013)

are these eggs that need to remain shell intact?


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## HHH Knives (Mar 31, 2013)

yea. I still have a youngster and we die them and stuff. Then do the Easter thing.  Hidden eggs, candy, So keeping the shells on for about 24 hrs would be best.


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## RRLOVER (Mar 31, 2013)

I have eating 6 hardboiled eggs(whites only) for about 4 weeks now.I feel the brown eggs peel easier and not super fresh eggs peel easier.It has to do with the outer membrane. I bring them to a boil,take them off the heat and let sit for 12 minutes,ice bath for a good long soak.


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## skiajl6297 (Mar 31, 2013)

Don't use fresh eggs. Using fresh eggs = poor shell separation. I always buy eggs a week prior to using for hard boiled. (And farm fresh for everything else!)
http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/the-food-lab-science-of-how-to-cook-perfect-boiled-eggs.html


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## mzer (Mar 31, 2013)

Use older eggs, about a week old is best. Crack them on the ends, then remove the shell from one end and shell them under a light stream of running water. The whole thing is to get the membrane under the shell off, and in older eggs the white has degraded a little* and the membrane doesn't stick to it as much. The stream of water does what every homeowner knows, it finds its way into the tiniest gap between white and membrane and the pressure increases that space. At that point it shouldn't be a problem to peel cleanly, especially for hard cooked, and even for a 4 minute egg.

*use fresh eggs for poached for the same reason, the white is firm and holds its shape with no trails.


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## cclin (Mar 31, 2013)

Randy, try put the eggs in ice cold water about 3~5 minuts right after the eggs done boiled...the egg shell should come off very easy


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## HHH Knives (Mar 31, 2013)

Ahh, This may be the heart of the problem. We buy farm fresh and almost always have them every year at Easter. So often there as fresh as a day or two out of the chicken when we get them.. 

Someone else told me to salt the water. Which I normally do anyways.

Thanks much for the help. I will try the water trick. as well as use old eggs next year! . I love hard boiled eggs.


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## HHH Knives (Mar 31, 2013)

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/10/t...iled-eggs.html

Thanks . Good link!


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## ajhuff (Mar 31, 2013)

Use A LOT of salt. Like several tablespoons in 2 quarts of water. Boil 10 minutes, drain, then cover in ice.

-AJ


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## HHH Knives (Mar 31, 2013)

Thank AJ. I will apply many of these things next time I do HB eggs!


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## franzb69 (Apr 1, 2013)

try this out:

[video=youtube;ai9Akl8vQ-c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai9Akl8vQ-c[/video]


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## chinacats (Apr 1, 2013)

Awesome Franz!


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## franzb69 (Apr 1, 2013)

saw that on a few other youtube vids with better examples just couldn't find the nicer ones.


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## scotchef38 (Apr 1, 2013)

In last quarters Lucky Peach Harold McGee wrote an in depth article about this.His solution is very complicated.I have the same problem as we have chickens and came across an article on pressure cookers that suggested cooking eggs in it to resolve this issue.Dubious as I was I cooked them for 3 minutes on a trivet with a couple of cm of water in the base and let it release the pressure naturally.The shells almost fell off and the eggs were perfectly hard boiled.Give it a shot.


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## Jmadams13 (Apr 1, 2013)

Right before peeling, torch the shell with your torch. Makes the shell very brittle, and peel under running tepid water, comes right off, easy as can be. 

Saw this in Modernist Cuisine At Home, tried it yesterday, and worked amazingly well. My eggs were dyed Thursday.


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## mr drinky (Apr 1, 2013)

I might try the pressure cooker eggs and the torch trick. Great tips.

I make a lot of hard boiled eggs and use a variety of supermarket eggs, and it always is hit or miss for me. Even if I use non-fresh eggs, put in baking soda, cool in ice, run under tap water etc, there are some that are easy and some that are hard it seems. Off course, freshness may still vary as it is hard to tell how old those eggs are at the supermarket, but I use the same technique for them all. The fact is that eggs vary greatly. 

With that said, even though I don't care for using that blowing technique to de-shell eggs (who wants someone blowing on their egg before you eat it?), I do, however, employ it to loosen the membrane before peeling under water, and that seems to help. But again, this is only when I am eating the egg. If it is for someone else, I don't do it. 

k.


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## Mike9 (Apr 1, 2013)

Are we talking tied Easter eggs here? If so blowing them out of the shell could leave your lips looking like . . . well - just sayin'. :eyebrow:

If we're just talking hard boiled eggs I crack the shells the minute they come out of the pot then cool with cold water. They peal pretty easy after that. No matter how you do it you need to get under that membrane.


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## HHH Knives (Apr 1, 2013)

You guys are awesome. Thanks for the tips!


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## Paradox (Apr 1, 2013)

HHH Knives said:


> Ahh, This may be the heart of the problem. We buy farm fresh and almost always have them every year at Easter. So often there as fresh as a day or two out of the chicken when we get them..
> 
> Someone else told me to salt the water. Which I normally do anyways.
> 
> Thanks much for the help. I will try the water trick. as well as use old eggs next year! . I love hard boiled eggs.



If your eggs are really fresh like that you can leave them out at room temp overnight before you boil them and it will make them much easier to peel. Cover with cold water by at least one inch, two is better, bring to boil. When boil is reached set pot off heat with cover on for 12 min. Ice bath for 5 min. Good to go.


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## G-rat (Apr 1, 2013)

Lately I have been doing around 3-4 tablespoons of baking soda per gallon of water, bringing it to a rolling boil, dropping the eggs in gently with a spider, let it cook for exactly 12 minutes. Crash in an ice bath. They peel perfect every single time and very easily; the shell comes off in huge chunks and the inner membrane is never stuck. I am fairly certain that this works just as well with fresh eggs and not just on older ones as lately our eggs have been coming from Restaurant Depot and they move a ton of stock each day. But maybe they have been sitting in a warehouse somewhere. All i know is this method works perfect and especially against other methods we would try like covering the eggs with cold salted water. YMMV...but for us it is the magic trick.


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## scotchef38 (Apr 2, 2013)

mr drinky said:


> I might try the pressure cooker eggs and the torch trick. Great tips.
> 
> I make a lot of hard boiled eggs and use a variety of supermarket eggs, and it always is hit or miss for me. Even if I use non-fresh eggs, put in baking soda, cool in ice, run under tap water etc, there are some that are easy and some that are hard it seems. Off course, freshness may still vary as it is hard to tell how old those eggs are at the supermarket, but I use the same technique for them all. The fact is that eggs vary greatly.
> 
> ...



If you put your eggs in a bowl of water and they sink to the bottom,they are fresh.If they float they are old.


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## jgraeff (Apr 2, 2013)

also if you roll the shell on the counter it cracks it all then the whole thing will just peel off together.


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## boomchakabowwow (Apr 3, 2013)

been mentioned..but your eggs are too fresh.

i cook my hardboil eggs in my electric water kettle. it gets it all to a boil and shuts off automatically. 
i've boiled a pot dry with eggs before. worse kitchen disaster ever. trust me on this one.


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## Jbone (Apr 3, 2013)

from my experience as long as theyre cooked properly the shell should separate no prolem 6-8 minutes for softer yolk 10 minutes for hard. 2.5 minutes for soft quail eggs which btw youll want to kill your self if you have to peel them even slightly under cooked


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