The Best Way to Peel an Egg

Peeling hard-boiled eggs for a deviled egg dish does not have to be difficult.

Hard-boiled eggs are simple to make and are a healthy protein snack. Peeling them is necessary to make the potluck standard---deviled eggs. Hard-boiled eggs are delicious eaten alone with a bit of salt and pepper or used in Cobb and Chef salads, tuna fish, chicken salad or egg salad. Peeling a hard-boiled egg can be tricky, but with the right technique, you can complete the task quickly and easily and avoid finding bits of shell in your foods.

Things You'll Need

• Sauce pot
• Spoon

Instructions

1. Cool the hard-boiled eggs by draining the boiling water after cooking and adding cold water to the pot. You may need to repeat this action a couple of times to cool them quickly.

2. Tap the egg with a spoon or other hard object while holding the egg under running water. Use a gentle tap to crack open the egg.

3. Peel the egg by tearing off pieces at the largest end, which is the flat end where the air pocket is, to quicken the peeling process. Remove the thin membrane between the egg and eggshell while peeling; sometimes if you grasp a portion, the whole eggshell will slide off.

4. Rinse your egg after peeling to make sure there are no tiny pieces of shell sticking to the egg that may result in a crunchy surprise in your food dishes.

Tips & Warnings

• Purchase the eggs for hard boiling a few days before you want to use them. Fresh eggs are harder to peel when hard boiled, according to the What's Cooking America website.

• Ignore the old wives tale that states adding salt to the water makes peeling eggs easier. The salt raises the boiling temperature of the water, thus causing the egg whites to become rubbery, and salt does not aid in the peeling process.

References

• What's Cooking America: How to Boil Eggs