Boiled eggs-hard to peel shell

[sunnychooks]

OK... Here's my sure-fire, never-fail (well almost) method of hard cooking fresh eggs.

Get a steamer basket like the kind you would steam veggies in (I have a metal one) and put about 1 inch of water at the bottom of a pot. Place the steamer in the pot and the eggs in the steamer. Cover the pot and heat until the water boils. Turn the heat off and let the eggs sit (steaming) for about 25 minutes. Take the steamer with the eggs in it and submerge in cold water. Peel the eggs when they cool and you should have shells that come right off.

 

[FamilyOfChickens]

The longer they're in the fridge, the easier they are to peel! Always! (Well, unless you have a broken fridge I suppose...)

 

[rufus]

I always like to poke a little hole in the big end of the egg with a pin. That way they don't break and spill out in the boil. Also, I put plenty of salt into the water. Somehow, that seems to work.

Rufus

 

[countrygirl4513]

I put a tablespoon(or more depending on how many eggs) of salt in the water. Then after they boil I let them set for a good while, drain them then cover with cold water, tap on each end of the egg till good and cracked all over and use a teaspoon to peel the shell of like peeling an orange. There is usually an air pocket in the end of the egg that's why I tap each end it helps to disperse the air around the shell.

 

[mommahento5]

I think the easiest way is to just use "older" eggs. Whenever I want to make deviled eggs for some occasion, I save a dozen or so in a marked carton, for at least a week. Two week old eggs work even better. Of corse sometimes, I don't think that far ahead, so I will be trying some of the tips mentioned above too for very fresh eggs!!

 

[Forest_Nymph]

STEAM THEM!

Works like a charm, may take a bit longer but well worth the time, especially if they're fresh.

sylvia

 

[LT]

Quote:
I followed this advice with much better success than I was expecting. I boiled 4 and had two peel beautifully and the other two peeled with some minor sticking of the white to the membrane, but I was able to use all of them for these:

 

[Carolyn]

This is the method that seems to always work for me. I have noticed that when I post it on a thread and the OP comes back and says they tried it with success the thread is shorter than the other threads on this subject. First the back ground: older eggs have some separation of the membrane from the shell already in process; that is the reason older eggs peel easier. I rarely had problems with store bought eggs. However, I don't recall ever being able to just boil and peel my own hens eggs no matter how old they were (6 wks).

Hope this works for you:

Add 1 tsp salt to a pan of water and bring it to a boil (make sure enough water to cover eggs)
Carefully lower the eggs (fresh eggs or older, doesn't matter; room temp or refrigerated) into the boiling water. Resume the boil, cover pan and reduce heat to simmer. For regular eggs, cook 15 minutes, for small eggs 12.
As soon as the time is up, pour off the hot water, run cool water over them a few minutes then put in ice water until very cool and easy to handle. Break the shell and start peeling at the large end.

This also eliminates the green color on the yellow.

I have thought about experimenting by leaving off salt, turning off heat etc but since this has worked 99% of the time, I don't feel like experimenting. I ate a lot of egg salad trying the other methods and it took a lot for me to convince myself to put a cold egg into boiling water. I use a slotted spoon to lower the eggs into the water.

 

[Jace]

This is useful! Thank you all for the different methods to try out. Thanks to LT, I'm now craving deviled eggs.

 

[Noymira]

Quote:
I do this exactly and it works 99% of the time, though I don't add ice to the bath at the end, just leave the eggs in a shallow bowl and run cold water over them for 5 minutes. To crack I tap gently on the counter until they crack, then roll them around until the shell is all cracked, then they peel like a dream! I've done this with store bought eggs, our eggs cold from the fridge and eggs warm from the nest, works with them all!