cheryl
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You Should Poke a Hole in Your Eggs Before Boiling Them - Lifehacker
Most hard-boiled egg recipes will tell you to cover your eggs with cold water, bring them to a boil, then cover and move them off the heat for 12 minutes or so. In my experience, this has always resulted in eggs that are impossible to peel.
Starting eggs in cold water and bringing it to a boil bonds the white to the membrane, which makes it extremely hard to peel away the shell. Because of this, I always use a hot start (whether I’m boiling, steaming, or pressure cooking). This results in peelable eggs every single time, but it can also result in the occasional cracked egg. My rate for cracked eggs was about one in six, which isn’t so bad when you consider that I like to use more yolks than whites for my deviled eggs, but even I must admit that no cracked eggs would be an improvement.
In addition to the occasional sacrificed egg, another aspect of my method needed a little help: the aesthetics. After I published this blog on shocking hard-boiled eggs, a very nice professional cook sent me a very nice email. He didn’t have any notes on the shocking, but he had noticed that my egg bottoms needed a little help:
Most hard-boiled egg recipes will tell you to cover your eggs with cold water, bring them to a boil, then cover and move them off the heat for 12 minutes or so. In my experience, this has always resulted in eggs that are impossible to peel.
Starting eggs in cold water and bringing it to a boil bonds the white to the membrane, which makes it extremely hard to peel away the shell. Because of this, I always use a hot start (whether I’m boiling, steaming, or pressure cooking). This results in peelable eggs every single time, but it can also result in the occasional cracked egg. My rate for cracked eggs was about one in six, which isn’t so bad when you consider that I like to use more yolks than whites for my deviled eggs, but even I must admit that no cracked eggs would be an improvement.
In addition to the occasional sacrificed egg, another aspect of my method needed a little help: the aesthetics. After I published this blog on shocking hard-boiled eggs, a very nice professional cook sent me a very nice email. He didn’t have any notes on the shocking, but he had noticed that my egg bottoms needed a little help: