So, i rarely make hard boiled eggs. And when i prepare boiled egg for myself, i scrape it out of the shell onto buttered toast. But i do hard-boil 6-12 eggs every year for passover. And need to peel them cleanly. And i recently realized that I’m piercing the shell wrong. I don’t want to pierce just the shell, i also want to pierce the membrane inside, to make it easier to peel. I’ve been doing this wrong for years.
We had an egg piercing tool when i was a kid. I don’t have one, and I’ve been drilling a little hole in the shell with the point of a sharp piece of metal. But that doesn’t pierce the membrane, just the shell. Is it worth getting an egg piercing tool? Or should i just buy a box of push pins and keep one near the kitchen?
Anyway, despite trying all sorts of tricks (ice water, cracking the shells all over …) my shelf usually stick. But this year i pierced the membrane (with a thumbtack. Not ergonomically recommended. A push pin would be much easier to remove) and every egg slid right out of the shell. I’m a convert. It’s just a question of how best to do it. (And part of “best” is not taking up a lot of space, although that’s not the only consideration.)
It made SUCH a huge difference this year. I’m going to keep doing it.
Although, honestly, piercing just the shell was probably making things worse. Pressing the membrane into the white as it cooked. Maybe I’ll try not piercing the shell at all some time. But this was so perfect i expect to keep doing it.
I’ve always had to cook a few extra because so many came out with bits of white missing, and didn’t look pretty for the passover table.
A push pin works exactly the same as a dedicated tool. Just make sure you sanitize it first. It’s definitely easier than trying to “drill” a hole with a knife point or scrap metal.
That’s what I thought too. It can be tricky, unless you buy the eggs far enough in advance that you know they’re reasonably old.
My husband steams his hard-boiled eggs, I think he does something like putting the eggs in a pot of boiling water using a vegetable steamer basket, takes it off the heat, and then uses a timer (I don’t know how long). I will ask him if he ever has a problem peeling the eggs.
I usually have eggs lying around. I buy fresh ones for the passover desserts (which require whipping them up fluffy) but use the old ones to make hard boiled.
I have often cooked bulk hard-boiled eggs. I put them in an old net curtain and lowered them into boiling water for about eight minutes. (Note that they were at room temperature.)
I would dunk them in cold water, then peel them while warm. The easy way was to roll them around and shatter the shell, which would then fall off with the inner skin.
I use the Instant Pot. I’ll load them on the trivet, add a cup of water, and set it for five minutes. After it’s done cooking for five minutes, let them sit in the pressure cooker for five minutes before opening the release valve. Then put them in an ice bath for five minutes.
The steam and pressure separates the white and the membrane, so peeling is easy-peasy.
I either use a steamer tray (usually used for veggies but works just great for this too). If not, just put 1/2" or so of water in the pot (I don’t measure that…just eyeballing it is fine). Boil the water, put the eggs in and cover (a tight cover is very important for this…not sealed though…steam will need to escape, this is not a pressure cooker). Cook for 10 minutes (set a time…this matters). You may want to run a few tests to see how long gets the result you want (mainly how cooked the yolk is…no right-or-wrong, just what you want).
While the eggs cook fill a bowl with ice. A bowl big enough to suffice for all the eggs. Fill it with ice then fill it with water right to the top. Leave in the sink since water will overflow on the next step.
When the time is up, turn off the heat and immediately put all the eggs being cooked into that ice water. Let them stay there till completely chilled (usually 20 minutes or so…never really timed that but no harm letting them stay in longer).
95% of the eggs I cook this way peel with no problems at all. Tap them on the counter to crack the shell and pull the shell away (usually comes away in 2-3 pieces). Membrane almost always goes with the shell. If not, just pull whatever little bit of membrane or, better, rinse under water or in a bowl (every once in a while a tiny piece of shell sticks to the egg…unpleasant if someone tries to eat it…a quick rinse pretty much solves that problem).
Again, not 100% but close enough I am fine with it.
ETA: With so little water in the pot be careful to not let all the water boil away. It won’t for one batch but if you are cooking multiple batches of eggs keep an eye on the water level. Add more as needed. Letting it all boil off it kinda nasty…smells very bad. I can tell you from experience you can burn water.
EETA: NOTE: When boiling the water and cooking the eggs no need to keep the stove on full-blast. You want to maintain the boil fer sure and get it back to boiling fast if the eggs are in the water and not a steamer basket but usually no need for 100% power either. Stoves can differ so just figure out yours.
I steam as well. Never had too much of an issue peeling. I do steam → ice bath → peel under running water after rolling them on the counter to break up the shell. Occasionally, there is a more diffucult egg, but it’s not that much of a problem. I’ve never pierced eggs for hard boiling, even when I boiled them in water. I make hard boiled eggs a lot for Friday Lenten lunches (egg salad.)
I steam eggs for 14 minutes and then immediately transfer them to an ice bath for at least 10 minutes. I have no problem peeling them. The shell practically falls right off when I break it. Doesn’t matter how old the eggs are.
Hard boiled eggs is just cooking eggs in their shell. Heat and time is all there is to that. (I suppose you could bake them but never heard of that being done and I am not gonna be the one to try.)
