I'm so tired of egg shells in my food!!

[addiedunn]

We love having fresh eggs from our hens. After all, isn't that why most of us have them? That's why it's so irritating when I use them to make a nicer cake or pie and we end up crunching on eggs shells. That's the worst. I've noticed, too, that when I crack them in the skillet, I always get little bits of shell falling in the pan. What causes this? My shells aren't thin, I don't think. I always put the eggs in my barn coat jacket pocket and sometimes forget them while I get sidetracked with other chores. They sometimes go through a lot before they get back to the house and in the fridge and I've never broken one. And usually I have to crack them two or three times on the skillet when frying, so I really don't think they are too thin. I just seem to have a problem with pieces falling into whatever I'm making.

Any ideas?

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

I have noticed that fresh eggs take a different technique to crack than store bought.
Until you figure it out, use a seperate small bowl to crack them in so you can get the shell out before adding to your mix.

 

[Farmer Brown]

I have a piece or two of shell from time to time. Seems that for us the shells are so hard that you really have to give them a good whack to crack them open and then they still take some prying. I think the problem is a good one over all, maybe a BYC'r has a better technique ? We usually gather our eggs soon after they are laid so I don't think the ride in your jacket is a problem.

 

[antlers]

I have a theory but unproven...

Our egg shells are thicker and need cracking harder. This causes more small pieces to crack near the impact site. Then with a tougher membrane (from fresh eggs) under the shell you have to poke in there puncture that membrane which drives some small pieces into the whites or fall into the bowl/pan.
I find if you crack on a sharp edge AND that crack tears the membrane even just a bit, you get no shell pieces.

 

[MissPrissy]

Crack them into a small dish. I never crack directly into a pan or recipe not only because fresh egg shells crack differently but sometimes you may get something in an egg that will cause you to have to throw out the entire recipe of whatever you were preparing.

 

[mawmaw_t]

I don't remember where I read or heard this but, if you crack the egg on a flat surface, like your counter top or stove top, you will usually get no shell in your pan or mix. Cracking them on the rim of a pan, bowl or cup will break the shell in smaller pieces, making it harder to see or pick out the shell.

I have been doing this since knowing about it & it has worked for me. The few times I've gotten shell in my pan they were large enough to pick out.

The shells on my eggs seem thicker too & I have to crack them a couple times before they open.

Hope this helps.

 

[davidb]

put them in a cup first

 

[CovenantCreek]

When we whack the egg several times to get it to open it, the shell gets broken into a lot of tiny pieces long before the membrane tears. I've found that using the corner of my spatula, or the sharp edge of a knife, works best to get through the shell and membrane in a single whack. Anything thicker, like the side of skillet or bowl will just increase the number of tiny pieces coming loose.

 

[addiedunn]

Quote:
I always do this when I'm baking anything, too. But at Thanksgiving I ended up with so many little shell bits in the pumpkin pie we just gave it to the chooks. I think the little ramekin I used was red and so harder to see the brown shells. Besides, at that point I was looking more for funky eggs and not so much shells. Now I know to look for both.

 

[MissPrissy]

Here's a tip - Crack all the eggs into one bowl. The shells will settle to the bottom and you can pour out the eggs on top and keep the shells in the bowl.