The science of perfectly peelable hard-boiled eggs

Cafe Society
1

I’m sure you all know what I mean. Sometimes egg shells slip off hard-boiled eggs easily, leaving glistening smooth spheroid-ish blobs, as if that was the future evolution intended them for.

Other times the shells pretend that they were welded to the contents and just will not let go, leaving you with things that look more like the cratered surface of the moon. :rage:

What confounds me, and clearly others, is how you can shift the odds to having more of the first result and fewer (ideally none) of the latter.

I’ve read many “tips” over the decades, pretty much contradictory, for how to achieve this. Suggestions have to do with:

Preparation to boil:
Have the eggs cold. Have the eggs at room temperature.
Have your pot of water at a full boil before adding the eggs. Put the eggs into fresh from the tap temperature water and let them warm up as the water does.
Use the freshest possible eggs. Don’t use the freshest eggs, let them ‘age’ in your fridge first for a week or so.
Prick the eggshells before boiling.

Length of time to boil:
For exactly X minutes. For varying minutes depending on the size of the egg. For Y minutes after the pot gets back to a boil (if doing a large number of eggs.)

After boiling:
Take pan off burner and allow eggs/water/pan to cool down together. Immediately remove eggs from the hot water and either leave them to cool at room temperature OR put them into cold water or put the hot eggs into the fridge and ignore until you want to eat them.

And assorted combinations of the above, and no doubt some I’ve forgotten. There was one about what kind of pan to use, as in steel or copper or something, but I forget which was to be preferred.

My method: Don’t care about the age of the egg (within reason), don’t prick, have the water boiling first, ten minutes from entry of the last egg, immediately dump out the hot water, fill the pan with cold water, give each egg a whack with the back of a spoon to break the shell a bit, and then start rubbing/massaging the eggs in rotation under water as if the goal was to reduce the egg shell to the tiniest sized pieces possible. Fairly quickly the shells will start ripping/sliding free of their ‘own will’, at which point I slide off the rest of that shell and leave the egg in the cold water while I continue with the others until all are naked.

This seems to work well for me, as in maybe 95% of all the eggs I do come out perfect. But there’s that annoying 5%… Why???

They were handled the same, cooked the same, probably laid the same number of days ago. So, maybe none of it matters, at least, nothing the cook can handle? Maybe to do with the hen’s genetics or diet or her age?

My hubby thinks I’m obsessing for no good reason. On the rare occasions he is the one cooking up the eggs he boils them for ten minutes, pour off the water, sticks the eggs in a bowl and shoves the bowl into the fridge. Done. He says his are just as likely to be ‘perfect’ as mine, and if they aren’t? What does it matter, if they taste the same. (Philistine.)

Has anyone studied this? Or have their own perfect system to share?

2

He is obviously not taking deviled eggs to the pot luck.

I’m going to watch this thread. Sometimes the shell takes nearly a quarter of the white off.

3

After many tears of cooking, I have a foolproof method. I can’t rattle it off quickly and I don’t want to forget anything, so I will get back to this thread as soon as I can.

4

I steam eggs rather than immersing them in boiling water. Besides cooking more reliably (because the water temperature doesn’t drop when you add the eggs), it seems to result in easily peelable eggs.

5

I’ve found fresher eggs to be more difficult to peal. My method involves dumping the hot water, cracking the shells (by rattling the eggs around in the pan), then “shocking” them with cold water. I do this a few times.

It sounds like compromising the shell to allow the cold water to reach the inside is a common step in these methods.

6

My gf has a steamer that does 6 eggs at a time. It has a tool to pierce the shell. Eggs, water, plug in. Automatically shuts off when finished. The eggs peel very easily.

7

I have one of these too. It’s very easy and the little machine plays me a symphony when the eggs are done.

8

They’re just eggs, don’t cry. :wink:

9

My recipe that always works:

Take egg(s) from the fridge. Put a hole in the flat end of the egg with a fork or something more sophisticated like an egg picker (a staple of German kitchens) Put them in a pot of boiling water. Let them boil for 10-12 minutes (rather 12 to make sure they’re really hard-boiled). Take them out of the water with a spoon and let them rinse under cold water for a few seconds.

There, you have perfectly peelable hard-boiled eggs.

10

America’s Test Kitchen provides science-based cooking instructions that are subjected to rigorous repeat testing. Here’s what they have to say:

  • Start the eggs in hot water: Starting the eggs in hot, rather than cold, water causes the whites’ proteins to seize and bond together, preventing them from sticking to the shell membrane so that the peel slips right off.
  • Steam, don’t boil: Steaming doesn’t lower the temperature of the water, so the eggs will cook evenly every time.
  • To peel immediately, shock then shake: If you want to peel the eggs right away, prepare the ice bath in a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. Once the eggs are chilled, pour off half of the water and, holding the lid in place, shake the container vigorously using a vertical motion (the eggs will hit the top of the container) until the shells are cracked all over, about 40 shakes. Peel, rinse, and use as desired.
11

Hmm - a lot of food for thought (heh!) here.

My take on this - informal observation only - is that old eggs peel easier. The reasoning (don’t know if I read this or decided it for myself) is that over time the eggs lose a little moisture through the porous shell and therefore the "meat* (as it were) shrinks slightly and naturally pulls away from the shell. After cooking - an easier peel results.

I feel a moment of science coming on.

j

12

Pretty much what I do, although I dump a tray of ice cubes into the cold water.

13

My trick:

  1. It’s better if the eggs are “aged” a week or so in the fridge, since fresh eggs don’t separate as well.
  2. a tablespoon of baking soda in the boiling water.
  3. After boiling, crack the shell and soak the eggs in cool water for a while, allowing water to get between the membrane.

It’s not 100% foolproof, but it always helps, and I’ve never truly and properly mangled an egg since I started doing it this way.

14

We make 12-16 hardboiled eggs a week. Been doing that for a couple years or so. Every single egg is ridiculously peel-able. Literally every one.

The trick - admittedly not practical for everyone - is to use an Insta Pot pressure cooker.

  • Set it on manual, 8 minutes.
  • Release the pressure when it beeps
  • Once pressure is released, pour out hot water and replace with cold water and ice cubes.
  • After 10-15 minutes, stick 'em in the 'frigerator
  • Peel and enjoy

mmm

15

Most commercial eggs are considerably older than you might imagine – eggs keep very well. They legally can be up to two months old.

If you have laying hens you mostly have to resign yourself to soft boiled eggs or put some aside to age.

16

This works like a charm.

17

Agreed. Steaming (whether in a regular pan or an instant pot / pressure cooker) works more reliably than any other method I’ve ever tried.

18

Great cite! I’m convinced.

19

Not all eggs are the same. I think the most important thing is the chicken that laid them. Some brands of eggs almost peel themselves while other you have to pick at them one little piece at a time. The perfect way to hardboil an egg is to put them in cold water and bring to a boil for no more than one minute. Turn off the flame and let them sit until the water cools down a bit (12 min approx) You have to make sure your pan has at least 2 qts of water or it will cool to fast. The yellow of the egg is supposed to be yellow not green. A slight sulfur taste can result in over cooking.

20

Home economists have known this since like forever. The air cell gets bigger as the eggs age in storage.

I found that an Instant Pot, at pressure for 5 minutes, produces very peelable eggs.