How do I peel a hardboiled egg (Hurry, I'm hungry!)

Every time I peel them, I wind up taking chunks out of the egg that are stuck tothe shell. Is this a function of how I’m cooking them, or am I just incompetent and peeling? I really need to eat breakfast soon, so please answer fast! Thanks.

Do you crack the egg before peeling it?
Try to pull the shell off without using your fingernails.

Make sure the egg is cool.

Crack it well – roll it around, cracking as you roll, until it’s pretty well fractured. It should peel off nicely then.

P.S. It looks like I said something really stupid. (you have to break the shell to peel it), but what I mean is - If you break the shell allover by banging it against something it may be easier to peel off little bits than big bits.

Thanks a bunch guys! It worked perfectly, and was much faster than they old way (only a couple of cracks, then peel). For the first time, the egg was peeled before my toast was done in the toaster oven! Its still in there cooking as I type this!

Tummy!

Oops! that should read “Yummy!” :smack:

Fresh eggs are harder to peel as well. So, the next time you want to make a batch of hard-boiled eggs, use the ones that have been lounging in the back of the fridge for a week or more.

IME, “hen-fresh” eggs are utterly impossible to peel. And when I say hen-fresh, I mean “this egg was in my neighbor’s chicken four hours ago” fresh.

If the eggs are very fresh, they are harder to peel.

Make sure you cool them down enough. I actually have a silly little ritual - I dump the hot water out, run cold over them, slosh them around a little, take them out, hold them until they start feeling warm again, and dunk them in a fresh batch of cold water. I imagine that all I’m really doing is making sure the egg surface is amply cooled before I crack it. If you do it right, you can have a cool surface to peel while retaining a nice warm yolk, though.

Then, I crack the fat end, making sure there are a lot of cracks. I usually find that after I take a couple of small bits off, I can get underneath the membrane and peel the shell off in large pieces.

For cooking, I start the eggs out in a pot of cold water, slowly bring to a boil, let boil for one minute, turn off stove/remove from heat, and let the water cool. The eggs continue to cook in their own+water’s heat until they are just how I like them.

There was another thread on cooking hardboiled eggs, but I can’t find it. Bring to boil, cover, remove from heat. Let sit for 15 minutes. Drain. Roll eggs around in pot to fracture the shells, fill pot with cold water, let sit until cool. Easy to peel.

It also can help to peel the egg under a facuet of running water.

What always works for me is, start with cold water, boil (I forget how long), dump the water out and immediately cool them down in running cold water. This can take awhile, the little buggers retain a lot of heat. Kind of rub the egg between my two hands until the whole surface of the egg is cracked, then start peeling. The cold water seems to make the egg shring a little inside the shell, and the whole shell peels off in a couple of huge chunks.

Sounds like you’ve got it, though. Enjoy!

I just use the back of a spoon, tap around the egg, and peel. I don’t think I’ve ever had eggs stick to the peel. Same with soft-boiled eggs. I usually dunk 'em in ice cold water at the end of the cooking time, if that helps.

Moved to CS.

-xash
General Questions Moderator

Dunking hard-boiled egg in cold water shrinks the inside yolk somewhat.

Also, peel from the fat end first.

The real trick is to peel an egg one continous shell with no missing bits.

WHY is a fresh egg harder to peel?

According to Cookwise, by Shirley Corriher, older eggs have a higher pH. This is what makes them easier to peel.

I always thought it was because the white shrinks as the egg loses moisture as it ages. Then when you boil the egg, the membrane adheres mostly to the shell, rather than bonding the shell + the egg together.

Made sense in my head, anyway.

Dumping the eggs into cold water may sound silly, but it also helps stop the black ring that sometimes forms around the yolks.

Why peel? Cut in half and scoop! This negates the unnecessary timing of cool-down; the trial and error calculation of how well you like it cooked etc.
Just boil, cut chop or spread depending on whether you’re making a salad or sandwich and Bob’s your Auntie’s live-in-lover.

I know when my eggs are done by putting the toast in as they come to boil. Toast pops - eggs are done. YMMV, but once found - never forgotten. Same goes for eggs you want to dip your toast into.

I love me some eggs.

MiM

I have an electronic chicken that makes my soft and hardboiled eggs, but to peel them, I take the hot eggs after cooking and put them in a bowl and run the coldest water the sink dispenses over them. I’ve read it makes a little steam pocket between the egg and the shell when you do that, but I don’t know if that’s true or not. Then I hit them gently against the side of the sink, just enough to crack the shell where I can pull a bit and get my fingernail underneath it. I peel the egg while it’s still hot, under a faucet of cold-running water. They come out perfect everytime. That’s how my mom did it and I’ve loved eggs so I used to impatiently peel them myself as a kid.

Soft-boiled eggs I like almost raw, so I think they’d fall apart if you tried to peel them completely. I tap the top with a spoon and peel off just enough shell to get a spoon or a corner of toast inside.