Hard Boiled Egg Pealing

Hard-boil eggs ahead so they're on hand when you want a quick snack

Here are some tips for peeling and storing hard-cooked eggs:

— To easily peel a hard-cooked egg, first crack the shell all over by gently tapping it on a hard surface. Roll the egg between your hands to loosen the shell. Start peeling at the large end of the egg. To help remove the shell, you can also hold the egg under cold running water or dip it in a bowl of water while peeling.

— If you have some eggs in the fridge and you're not sure which are cooked in the shell or raw, spin the eggs on a flat surface. A hard-cooked egg will spin smoothly and rapidly while a raw egg will wobble because of its liquid centre.

— Cook a dozen eggs at the start of the week to save time when you want a quick snack or to make a sandwich filling. You can keep hard-cooked eggs in the fridge for up to a week.

Source: Egg Farmers of Ontario.

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How to Hard Boil Eggs - Go Gingham

This “Ask Sara” question comes from my sister, Mary.  “What are the tricks to hard boiled eggs? I boil them for about 20 minutes, dunk them in cold water and peel, and always some egg gets left on the shell. Any suggestions?”  Why, Mary, yes I have some very simple steps for you to follow.

This is the easiest, absolutely foolproof way to hard boil eggs.  Place your raw eggs in the bottom of a pan and add cold water to cover the eggs plus an additional 2 inches of water.  Sprinkle with a little salt and cover pan with a tight fitting lid.  Turn heat to high and bring pot to a boil.  Once the pot comes to a boil, turn off the heat, and set a timer for 10 minutes.  Leave the pot on the hot burner, with the lid on, and the heat turned off.   When the timer goes off, drain the water, and place eggs in a bowl to cool.  You can crack eggs to let heat escape to cool quicker.  Peel and enjoy.

Eggs should be at least 2 weeks old to boil.  Don’t boil freshly laid eggs.  If I want to boil eggs from our backyard chickens (I’m holding our chicken, Caddie Woodlawn in the picture below), I hide the eggs in the back of the refrigerator, date the carton, and attach a note that reads “Do Not Eat.”  Freshly laid eggs are harder to peel once boiled.

Boiled eggs are excellent in egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, or potato salad.  Once peeled, crush up the egg shells and toss them into your compost pail.  Egg shells are great for your garden, especially your tomato plants.

I have also found I really like poached eggs, soft boiled eggs, and fried eggs. Scrambled eggs, which I used to be fine with, now turn my stomach! I have no explanation for that.

I’d love to hear how our methods compare! We were just discussing poached eggs around here since that’s not how we prepare them and our kids were very interested until they heard about the soft-ness. We still may have to give it a try. I don’t think I ever had poached eggs growing up. Did your husband? I think his memory may be better than mine! I like fried eggs, too.

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