What's the secret to hard-boiled eggs that are easy to peel?!


Question: I've just boiled some eggs to make deviled eggs and when I peeled them little chunks of the white kept sticking to the inside of the peel. The eggs look horrible! (I'll still eat them, though!) I don't know if there is a special way to boil them or to peel them. I put them in a pan of cold water and brought the pan up to a boil. Then I removed the pan from the heat, covered it with a lid, and let the eggs sit for 15 minutes. Then I poured out the hot water and poured cold water on them until cooled. I peeled them both out of the water and underwater (my sister-in-law's tip) but it didn't seem to make a difference in terms of ease of peeling. By the way the inside of the eggs looks great - no green ring around the yolk from overboiling. Now if only I could figure out how to peel them..thanks.


Answers: I've just boiled some eggs to make deviled eggs and when I peeled them little chunks of the white kept sticking to the inside of the peel. The eggs look horrible! (I'll still eat them, though!) I don't know if there is a special way to boil them or to peel them. I put them in a pan of cold water and brought the pan up to a boil. Then I removed the pan from the heat, covered it with a lid, and let the eggs sit for 15 minutes. Then I poured out the hot water and poured cold water on them until cooled. I peeled them both out of the water and underwater (my sister-in-law's tip) but it didn't seem to make a difference in terms of ease of peeling. By the way the inside of the eggs looks great - no green ring around the yolk from overboiling. Now if only I could figure out how to peel them..thanks.

I was told that this only happens with really fresh eggs.

Usually, when you are peeling eggs, there will be one spot where there is an air bubble between the egg and the membrane. If you start at this spot, you can peel the membrane off with the shell, and it usually comes off easier. Sometimes peeling the egg under water will help as well.

When I let them sit in cold water, I usually change the water a couple of times. The first cold water wash gets warm because the eggs are still warm. The second cools them down some more making it easier to peel. When they're cool, I tap them lightly on the counter to crack the shell all over before peeling. Usually, the shell peels right off.

Hmmm... I peel them really slowly from bottom to top (i dont know why), it works sometimes

when they are done boiling, submerge in cold water (which I see you're already doing.) before you peel them, roll them around on the countertop with enough pressure that the shell cracks all over. (roll them between your hand and the counter.)
this makes it really easy to peel them, and they usually come off in one or two pieces.

After they are boiled I put them in a cold bowl of water for a few minutes. Then I roll the egg until the whole shell is cracked & peel it-comes off easy. Hope that helps.

Gently crack the shell of each egg while it is in the boiling water. Tap it sharply to produce a crack but not so much as to cause a hole for the insides of the unboiled egg to leak out into the water. It really does work.

It's just my guess, but I reckon it allows some moisture to get between and shell and egg-white which allows the egg membrane to separate from the shell. Try it!

The fresher the egg the higher the chance that the shell will stick to the whites.

What you can do is roll the egg on a hard surface to break the eggshell into little bits. It makes for easier peeling in general.

best way to peel cold boiled eggs is to tap the egg onto a hard surface so that the whole of the egg is cracked, then pick off a piece of shell from the middle and you will find that the whole of the shell will come away easily .

Happy Cracking

i let me cool and run under cold water for a bit before peeling them and they turn out fine.

Put the shelled eggs in cold water ,then it will be easy for you to remove the shells

Boil the eggs longer or until it cracks a little. Once you see little cracks on the boiled eggs, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the eggs to a bowl filled with tap water and let cool. Once cooled, then it would be easy to peel off the shells.

Use older eggs. I usually have a fresh carton & an older carton..





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