Talking egg salad sandwiches, I havn't tried any yet, only getting one olive egg and one white egg from a brown leghorn a day so far. But anyways last time I had chickens and fresh eggs you couldn't get the shells off a hard boiled with out losing a quarter of the white. Is there a trick to it I don't know about?
I tried putting some viniger in the water, salt, tried them cold, and hot, letting the eggs get older.
Nothing seemed to work to get the shells off fresh eggs.
I have had great luck steaming the eggs, even those laid the same day. Chill the eggs in the refrigerator and get the steamer boiling (or hot water if you don't have a steamer). Drop the cold eggs in the hot pot for 15-20 minutes. Fish them out with a slotted spoon and drop into ice cold water. Immediately knock on the countertop to crack both ends and let the cold water seep in. It is said that the abrupt change in temperature separates the membrane from the rest of the egg. After they are cool, roll on the counter to fracture the rest of the shell and it should peel easily. I still get one once in a while where the consistency of the white is strange and the whole thing crumbles, but that type of egg is hopeless no matter how you cook it.
Bantam eggs 12-15, regular eggs 20, turkey or duck 25 if larger than a chicken egg. For deviled eggs I add horseradish (fine cut), mustard, salt, and dill. Sometimes they peel even easier if you refrigerate overnight.
There are several threads on BYC about this. There is something about steaming that separates the outer membrane from the shell and the white due to how the steam penetrates the shell. Another strategy is to poke a pin hole in the end of the eggs so the boiling water can get in and do the same job.