No more craters and uneven surfaces on your hard boiled eggs. And no more frustration trying to get those shells off. Learn all the tips you need to peel eggs expertly.
Aren’t you glad I didn’t say eggspertly?
Ha! I just did!
We all know how annoying it can be to peel hard-boiled eggs. Sometimes it happens easily, other times it’s a struggle. When it’s a struggle, it’s the most frustrating thing, especially if you want to serve the eggs whole or as deviled eggs.
The steaming method of hard “boiling” eggs works best. Find out how to do it and why it makes peeling easier over here.
Once you’ve got that down, here is the best method to peel eggs.
How to Peel Eggs
Get out one hard-cooked egg.
Tap it gently on one side causing a spiderweb-type crack.
Go all around the egg making those spiderweb-like cracks.
Then gently tap the top and bottom of the egg, making that same kind of gentle but spread out cracks on the ends.
Then gently roll the egg so that the cracks you’ve made spread out all around it.
Now the egg is covered in this web of cracks.
Turn on your kitchen faucet with cold tap water running gently. Put the egg under the water and start peeling away the peels. This is where you find out if the thin membrane of the egg is attached more to the shell or more to the egg. It is more likely to be attached to the shell, which is what you want, if you used the steaming method mentioned above.
When the thin membrane is attached to the shell, you barely notice it and the shell just comes right off. If the membrane has attached more to the whites of the egg, then it’s harder to get the shell off. Try rolling the egg around a bit more and then try getting under that membrane to peel the egg.
Once the shell is all off, rinse the egg a bit more to make sure that no little bits of shell still adhere to it. Then you can put the egg into an airtight container in the fridge or sprinkle on a bit of salt and pepper and eat it right then. The temptation to eat it is huge. I pretty much always eat the first egg that I peeled.
Hmmm, since some eggs are easier to peel than others, it’s probably smarter to wait and see which one ends up the least nice looking and eat that one. If you can wait for it, that is.
How To Peel Eggs
No more craters and uneven surfaces on your hard boiled eggs. And no more frustration trying to get those shells off. Learn all the tips you need to peel eggs expertly.
- Prep Time: 2 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 2 minutes
- Yield: 1 egg 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 hard boiled or steamed egg
Instructions
- Tap the side of the egg gently on the counter.
- Then rotate the egg slightly and tap again. Repeat. You want a spiderweb of cracks to spread around the egg as you tap.
- Then tap the top and bottom of the egg on the counter so that there are spiderwebs there as well.
- Put the egg on its side on the counter and place the palm of your hand over it. Gently roll the egg under your hand so that the web of cracks spreads even more.
- Turn on the faucet. Peel the egg under cold running water. Once the peel is removed, rinse the egg thoroughly to make sure there are no more little bits of shell attached.
- Serve immediately or put the egg in an airtight container in the fridge.
This post originally appeared in May 2018 and was revised and republished in April 2021.
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