(1) Boil the sucker
(2) Thrust it into out-of-the-tap cold water until you can handle it
(3) Tap lightly to cause a dent in the side (don’t crush it and don’t pierce the skin under the shell!)
(4) Roll it around on the countertop (like you’re rolling playdough into a ball)
(5) Use just enough pressure to continue the cracking all around the shell without rupturing the skin.
(6) Hold the egg under running water and pierce the shell and skin, letting the water flood in between egg and shell.
(7) The shell usually comes away in one piece and what doesn’t come away quickly washes away.
The secret is adding salt to the boiling water before boiling the eggs then placing the eggs in cold running water (in a collander under cold running water) before/ while peeling the shells. The only reason I know this is Devilled Eggs (with Paprika) are a mid-west staple at picnics.
The secret to Devilled eggs is the filling; it should be a mix of salad dressing, yellow mustard and egg yolk. It should be smooth and moist, not too dry and not too runny.
The Cookbook Decoder has many words on this subject, although few of them directly addressed towards easy peeling:
“As the egg heats up, the air inside expands and tries to find a way out of the shell. Cleverly foreseeing this eventuality, the egg has provided itself with an escape hatch: pores in the large end of the shell. … If the air pocket is heated faster than the air can escape through the shell, there is terrific internal pressure and the shell cracks. … recipes have developed lots of anticracking devices, one of which is to poke a hole in the large end of the shell. … A thumbtack can substitute for the more expensive devices sold in gourmet shops … the hole should be 1/16 to 1/8 inch in diameter … Egg white will cook very quickly, and if it sets into shape before the air gets out, the shelled egg has a flat end … The pinholed egg, on the other hand, mirrors the beautiful oval shape of the shell , because the white flowed into the space vacated by the escaping air. … Pinholing is a good precaution when dealing with older eggs. As an egg ages, more air gets into it …”
“… what effect can (salt) have on the egg … If eggs crack while cooking in salted water there are, magically, no ugly streamers of white floating about. The white coagulates at the crack and seals the opening. Hence, salting the water is a sort of first aid for a ruptured egg.”
30 minutes? Um, I kinda think that would make for overcooked eggs, but we may be saying somewhat different things.
I keep boiled eggs around all the time, and thanks to Betty Crocker I’ve gotten it down to a science. Definitely poke the large ends, that helps a lot. I use a very thin trussing skewer, but that’s because I don’t have thumbtacks.
Betty’s routine is to start the eggs in a pot covered by at least 1" of salted, cold water. I prefer to use room-temperature eggs, since it seems to help prevent cracking. Bring the eggs to a boil, uncovered, over very high heat. Stir occasionally so the eggs heat evenly. By “boil” I mean a full-throated, roiling boil (that may be the difference in timing – “starts to boil” can easily mean different things to different people). Let them boil for about 30 seconds. Remove the pot from heat, cover, and let sit: 14 minutes for large eggs, 16 minutes for extra-large, 18 minutes for jumbo. Stir the eggs once halfway through; be sure to re-cover them.
After the halfway point, fill a large bowl with two trays of ice, with just enough water for the ice to float. When the eggs are done, plunge them in the ice water. Let them sit for as long as you like, then peel them right in the cold water.
Peeling the eggs promptly also seems to help prevent the greenish tinge from forming on the yolks. I tried an experiment where I peeled half a dozen quickly, and let the other half just go into the fridge. The peeled egg yolks were perfect yellow. The longer an unpeeled egg sat in the fridge, the more green it had was when I got around to peeling it.
P.S. the timing probably won’t be exactly the same for everyone, depending on your stove, the pot you use, etc. Eggs are cheap, be prepared to have a couple of batches come out “off” before you get 'em just right.
yeah, I roll my egss on the countertop too! I thought that I was the only one. And, the secret to slicing them is with that little egg slicing contraption that works very well.