Yep, I put them in ice water immediately after boiling them the proper amt. of time, then crack them while they’re in the ice water (after a minute or 2) and peel them in the same water. Baggie
I take the pot directly to the sink, pour out the hot water and replace it with cool water, then I take an egg, tap it on its side, then sort of crush the egg with my hand, just enough to increase the cracks. Then I peel it under a trickle of water. The trickle of water is the most important step. There are still occasional eggs that won’t peel right, but not many.
This is exactly what I do too. My husband told me to add salt to the water while boiling, so I do, but I don’t really know if it helps.
If I ever win some huge lottery, one of my first little extravagances will be to hire someone (not necessarily live-in) to peel my hard boiled eggs.
My eggsprience has been to salt the water heavily, and roll the boiled egg.
De shell under cold running water.
This is exactly how I peel eggs. Always peel them under the running faucet and let the water pressure get between the shell and the egg.
If you eat enough hard boiled eggs to make a live-in peeler worthwhile, don’t plan on living long enough to enjoy the luxury. 
In other words, the yolk’s on you?
I’ll tell you what you don’t want to do. Don’t buy a plastic product called “Eggies”. You’re supposed to crack the egg into these capsules and boil them, but the capsules are multi-piece and are a pia to load and to clean. Plus, for me anyway, they leaked in the water when boiling.
You don’t even need to win the lottery. They sell hard-boiled eggs in the supermarket. (They’re a little expensive. I think six hard-boiled eggs cost about the same as a dozen regular eggs.)
Considering you would be paying from ten to twenty cents per egg for hard boiling, that suggests that “little expensive” is different for some people.
A lot cheaper than “hiring someone to peel my hard-boiled eggs.”
This thread made my mouth water. I rarely hardboil eggs, but I like egg salad, so I thought I’d make some. Here’s my recipe (I don’t measure ingredients if not necessary, and most of my recipes are made from whatever ingredients happen to be on hand, so deal with it):
Mayo
Mustard
Chopped onion
Spicy relish
Chopped green pepper (hey, I had it, why not use it?)
Some chicken broth concentrate (the cook’s secret ingredient)
Pepper
Salt
Garlic powder
Chopped celery (didn’t have any this time)
A bunch of hardboiled eggs, chopped
In the interest of science, I decided to try hard boiling eggs in the several ways suggested in this thread to see if the method changed the peeling characteristics. Please be aware that this experiment is NOT scientific, does NOT have controls, and is highly subject to the lack of blinding, whether single, double, or triple.
Nevertheless, onward and upward…
First, important facts that might be contributing or even confounding factors:
My altitude: 580ft above sea level, +/- 20 ft
Barometric pressure: 29.6" of mercury and falling (yes, it’s getting a little stormy)
Temperature of room: 65 to 70F. (House is set to 65, but kitchen may be a little warmer)
Time of day: about noon local CST time
Eggs are large size, about 10 days from the grocery store, kept refrigerated in original styrofoam carton during that time at 38F +/-5F. Placed into water at near-fridge temp.
I boiled some water (H[sub]2[/sub]O) from the tap. Well water has some dissolved minerals, mostly iron compounds, but not noticeable in a clear glass container, and not detectable by taste. Boiling container was a 2 qt aluminum saucepan about 3/4 full and eggs were 90%-100% immersed at all times. Stove was electric and the burner was set on high (#1) until boiling, then reduced to #2 for most of the boiling sequence to avoid boiling over. No salt or other ingredient was added to the water.
When the boil was vigorous, but not rolling, I added 3 eggs from the same package. One immediately cracked enough to let a little of the white escape. I judged this to not be significant.
Meanwhile, I prepared an aluminum mixing bowl of about 10 inches in diameter with tap water and about 3 ice cube trays of ice cubes to create ice water. The temperature was not measured, but I estimate it was around 38F by the time it was needed.
I boiled the entire pot of eggs for 13 minutes exactly, using a kitchen timer. I removed all three eggs withing 20 seconds of each other, using a slotted plastic spoon.
Egg #1 (the cracked one) I put on a wet sponge on the counter.
Eggs #2 & 3 I immersed in the ice water bowl, and left them for 90 seconds.
After 90 seconds, I removed both Eggs #2 and 3 and placed #2 on the counter, on a paper napkin. #3 was put back in the boiling pot, which was no longer boiling, but sitting on an inactive stove burner. This egg was left in the pot for an estimated 20 seconds, then removed to a napkin on the counter.
All 3 eggs were left in the room for 20 minutes, when they were hand-tested and thought to be cool enough (but not room temperature cool) to be made into salad.
Within one minute, I removed the shells from all three eggs. In each case, the egg was tapped several times on a wooden butcher block until the shell was broken on all sides. The shell was then removed with the fewest number of pieces possible and discarded.
Results:
Egg #1: shell easily removed in 2 pieces
Egg #2: shell easily removed in 2 pieces
Egg #3: shell easily removed in 2 pieces
*No obvious difference was noted in the removal process. * It is my opinion (only an opinion, not a scientific fact) that if someone else had removed the shells, they would have not been able to distinguish between the processes used to prepare the eggs.
CONCLUSION: It makes little or no difference how the eggs are prepared as to how easily the shell is removed.
SOME POSSIBLE FACTORS: This experiment was done shortly after boiling and with minimal cooling. Its possible that subsequent refrigeration, or the passage of time, could influence the peeling. It’s also possible that different kinds of eggs, from different kinds of chickens, the time of year, the feed given to the chickens, and many more things may be a bigger factor than any of those tested here.
I chopped all eggs and blended them with the salad mixture. No difference was noted in the chopping procedure, and the final result tasted fine.
I heartily invite replication of my experiment, and bon appétit!
Forgive me for not summing up my tests better. Here is the quick summary:
Procedure #1: boil, remove and let cool
Procedure #2: boil, immerse in ice water, remove and let cool
Procedure #3: boil, immerse in ice water, put back in near-boiling water, remove and let cool
No difference was noted in the ease of removing shell after these procedures. I can only conclude that the procedures made no difference.
Musicat, thanks for giving my method a try! It’s really not as complicated as it sounds. All in, it’s (marginally) less time than the 15 min method, and you don’t even have to wash the ice water bowl. But I digress.
I neglected to mention that I do 4 or 5 hb eggs this way in the beginning of my workweek, then put the eggs (still in the shell) in a bowl in the fridge, then pop them into my lunchbox when packing lunch. I do not have a sink available to peel, as I often eat lunch at my desk.
I have found that the bring to boil/remove from heat/15 min method works ok if you are immediately peeling under running water, but I found it easier to peel a couple of days later, sans sink, with my method. That’s why I do it.
Agree that it maybe isn’t worth the second boil if you are peeling at once. However, disagree that it’s complicated, since you already have boiling water sitting right there.
When I get around to it, I’ll do a similar test and see how the peel goes a couple of days down the line. I’ll post, even if it turns out that I was doing second dip for nothing.