Cooking Classes

21.4.14

The Definitive Guide on How to Peel an Egg

It sounds so easy, so simple. Peel an egg. I am a home economist and an avid home cook. I have peeled a lot of eggs but when I took on the challenge to make pickled eggs for an organic farmer friend, I had no idea of the challenge that lay ahead.

I have lost count of how many eggs I have peeled but it is in the neighbourhood of at least 100 dozen. That's 1200 freaking eggs! Even with easy peeling eggs this is a lot of eggs! What was I thinking when I said yes I would help him out?

His organically raised free range hens produce an egg with a very hard shell. I swear you could drop it and it wouldn't break. Under that hard shell is a very tough membrane. Producing picture perfect peeled eggs has been a learning curve. Here is the system I use ...

Step 1   Do not use fresh eggs. Stale work better.

Step 2   Place eggs in a pan of cold tap water.

Step 3   Heat to boiling and turn off heat. Let sit in hot water with lid on for 12 minutes.

Step 4   Forcefully dump eggs into sink so they will crack. If all eggs do not crack, crack them. The more they are cracked the better.

Step 5   Place in ice cold water and let soak for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight.

Step 6   Using a stainless steel spoon peel the eggs. Be sure to get under the membrane and gently move the spoon around so the shell is loosened from the egg. If you use a silver spoon it will become very tarnished very quickly. The air sac is usually on the blunt end of the egg and this is a good place to start.


1 comment:

  1. I just saw this spoon technique and keep meaning to use it. The best tip of all is not to use fresh eggs. When they are super fresh they do not like giving up that shell at all!!!

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