Perfectly Boiled and Easy to Peel Eggs

Do you ever struggle with getting hard boiled eggs to peel easily?  Do you ever end up with a yolk that's surrounded by a grayish/greenish ring?  Well never fear, today I'm sharing all the tips and tricks I've gathered over the years that have made for the perfect hard boiled egg that peels in a flash.

I used to have problems with both of the things I mentioned.  Then eventually I figured out how to get rid of the gray/green ring, but I still spent oodles of time trying to get all the tiny little pieces of shell to let go of the egg.  They would just cling to it with a vengeance and I would dread the fight.  But after trying different tips and tricks with sporadic success I've finally figured out the combination that works.

1.)  Only use eggs that are at least a week old.  I read something about the membranes in fresher eggs being tighter, and as they age they loosen up making them easier to separate from the egg.

2.)  Let the eggs sit out for awhile and come to room temperature before boiling.

(Makes them less likely to crack while cooking.)

3.)  Place all the eggs in a pan in a single layer.  Don't stack them.

4.)  Cover them with cool water.

5.)  Add a sprinkle of baking soda.

I had a read about adding baking soda to the water after you boil them - drain the hot water, add cold water, and add the soda.  But...that didn't seem to work for me.  So I tried adding it to the water before it boiled and that worked.

6.)  Put a lid on the pan and turn heat to med/high.

7.)  Bring the eggs just to the start of a good hard rolling boil.  

(You'll start to hear them vibrate and might even see some steam escaping under the lid.  Use these as your indicators, but DO NOT open the lid!)

8.)  Once they come to a boil, turn the burner off, remove the pan from the heat, and just let them sit with the lid on for 14 minutes.

(This will cook them perfectly without over cooking them.  Over cooking dries them out and gives that unsightly gray/green ring.)

9.)  As soon as the timer goes off, drain off the hot water and fill the pan with cold water.

10.)  Let them sit in the cold water just for 2-3 minutes.  You want them to be cool enough to handle, but not so cold that the membranes start to tighten back up.

11.)  Spread a paper towel in the bottom of your sink and turn the water on in a small trickle.

12.)  Starting at the large end first, give each egg a tap hard enough to crack it.  Then flip it over and crack the small end. 

13.)  After cracking each end, roll the egg back and forth under your hand and under the stream of water.  This allows the water to seep in the cracks and further separate the membrane from the egg.  

Do this to all the eggs before you start to actually peel them.

14.)  Once you get all the eggs cracked, then go back and start the peeling process.  Again, start at the large end as there's usually a bit of an air pocket there that makes it easy to get started and get under the membrane.  Here the arrow is pointing at the membrane.  It's very important to make sure you're getting your fingers under that and using it to peel the shell off.

Most of the shells should just slide off in large sections like this, but if not then just make sure you're getting under the membrane and slide them off as you can.  

When you're done, the eggs should feel really smooth, almost slimy and your fingers should easily be able to slide over all surfaces of the egg.  If you hit a spot that feels "rubbery" and provides resistance to your fingers then you've hit a bit of membrane that's still attached.  Just run your fingers over it a few times until it comes loose.

Now, the reason I put a paper towel in my sink is that as I peel them them I just pile the shells on the towel.  The water can still drain through it, but the paper towel is catching the majority of my mess.

Then when I'm done I can just fold up the towel and toss it without too much trouble and mess to clean up.  Plus, keeping everything in one spot saves time and energy since I'm not reaching back and forth between the sink and the garbage can.

Congratulations!  You should now have the perfect hard boiled egg that you didn't have to fight with.  I always hated it when I was supposed to bring Deviled Eggs to a gathering and I would have to boil twice as many as I actually needed because I knew half of them wouldn't turn out nice enough to be presentable.  Now I don't have that problem.

I've been doing the Atkins diet the past couple of weeks and Deviled Eggs have been my life saver, lol!  Now that I know how easy it is to peel them, I no longer dread it when it's time to make some more.

So, did you find this helpful?  Have you always struggled to get them to peel easily and perfectly?  Or do you have any other tricks or hints to share with our readers?  

I'd love to hear about it!

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