In case you missed it, I’m reposting this ‘recipe’ for how to cook easy-peel hard boiled eggs. Whether you’re dyeing your eggs with your kids, you love egg salad and deviled eggs, or you’re on a ‘nutritional plan’, you’ll want this trick. Tape it on your fridge!
Research and a tip from my friend @sheryljulian introduced me to the ONLY WAY TO COOK HARD-BOILED EGGS.
p.s., Of course, cook them any way you want! Anyone who reads major food sites will have been assaulted with the ‘best way, the best in the world, the blah blah blah recipe for….’ I’m not sure that annoying and overused hook works, but I’m not going to be shy anymore. This really is the best way. There are many ways to cook everything, I’m not the boss of you. But this is really great news:
Steaming your eggs makes them easy to peel!
It all starts with how you cook them and how you cool them.
Kenji Lopez-Alt formerly of Serious Eats explains it this way: “A hot start produces easier-to-peel eggs. And it doesn't matter whether that hot start is in boiling water or in a steam-filled pot or pressure cooker. All those eggs will be noticeably easier to shell than those started in a cold pot.”
Why?
If the eggs are slowly cooked (such as starting them in cold water and bringing it to a boil) the egg white bonds more strongly with the membrane on the inside of an eggshell and therefore, makes them hard to peel.
Steaming is better, even for fresh eggs.
According to Pete and Gerry’s Eggs, fresh eggs are harder to peel because the egg white or “albumen” in a fresh egg has a relatively low pH level, making it acidic. When cooked, 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.
Even fresh eggs fare better when they are steamed. Another advantage to steaming is that the shells usually don’t crack, and the egg white doesn’t leak into boiling water. It’s so much easier.
Who knew? Don’t you just love food science?
How to Steam Eggs
1. In a saucepan with a lid, bring about 1 inch of water to a hard boil. Insert a steamer.
2. Take cold eggs of out of the fridge and set them inside the steamer. Cover with a lid.
3. Keep the water at a boil. If you like the inside to be to be slightly soft (my favorite) cook for 9 minutes. For decidedly hard cooked eggs cook for 10 to 11 minutes. You will have to experiment to find your own sweet spot.
4. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with ice water.
5. Remove the eggs from the steamer and plunge them into the bowl of ice water. Don’t skip this step. Let them sit in the ice water for 15 minutes. Refrigerate for up to 5 days in the shell.
6. Tap the shells all over and remove the peel under cold running water.
Thanks for being here. I love hearing your comments, and get very excited when you share a post. Have a great weekend, friends. Until next time.
XXOO
Sally
Just wanted to let you know that I tried this today because YOU recommended it and you (and Kenji) are right. Came out perfect. I had to figure out how to steam them
in my Instant Pot. 💜