Words by: Family Farm Team
There's nothing more frustrating than peeling a hard-boiled egg and losing half of the white to those stubbornly stuck shells. If you've ever wrestled with the peeling process only to find yourself with a batch of raggedy looking whites that just won't do for your deviled egg platter, these tips are for you.
The fresher the eggs, the harder they are to peel. This is because the egg white or “albumen” in a fresh egg has a relatively low pH level, making it acidic. When cooked, these fresh egg whites bond strongly to the inner shell's membrane. As an egg ages, the pH level rises and the inner membrane is less likely to bond to the albumen, so the shell peels off much easier. At Pete and Gerry's, we pride ourselves on the freshness of our eggs, which come right from our small family farms. If you've ever had trouble peeling our eggs, we highly recommend either letting our eggs age for a week or two in your fridge or using the steaming method.
Steaming an egg yields the same result as boiling, but with the benefit of shells that are much easier to remove. The process is easy. Here's what you'll need:
*12 minutes works best when you're cooking six eggs in a single layer in your colander. If you're cooking a larger batch, or eggs that are layered on top of each other, you may need to add additional time to ensure that the eggs are cooked through.
Submerging your eggs in an ice bath right after you remove them from the pot (or any cooking apparatus you decide to use) is crucial. It not only brings the cooking process to a halt, preventing your eggs from getting overcooked, but also shocks the egg white, causing it to shrink back from the shell. This process helps begin to loosen the egg white from the inner shell membrane that's responsible for most difficult-to-peel hard-boiled eggs. In general, about 10 minutes (or more) of rest time in the ice bath will do the trick.
Once your eggs have cooled to the touch, peel them right in the ice bath (or, if it's too cold, replace the ice bath with cool water). Cracking the shells while the eggs are submerged allows the water to flow into the space between the egg white and membrane, further separating them. Once you've peeled all your eggs, strain off the water remaining in the bowl and compost the eggshells.
Got an Instant Pot? Try this steaming method for perfectly cooked and peelable hard-boiled eggs.
December 24, 2019
I find leaving them in frig overnight after cooking makes them most agreeable to peeling this works for fresh eggs as well as older. I have tried all the above methods and this one works the best. I eat over 60 eggs each month in various states. At least 30 of them are hard-boiled.
1 Reply
December 26, 2019
Thanks for sharing the tip with us, Patricia!
May 28, 2019
June 04, 2019