There’s nothing more frustrating than struggling to peel a hard boiled egg. If the shell doesn’t slip off in a few large pieces, you’re stuck picking tiny bits of shell off your egg or — even worse —completely mangling the egg white. To foolproof the process, here are a few of our favourite tips and tricks that we’ve found make peeling hard boiled eggs easy every time.
1. Add your eggs after the water boils
Some say that adding eggs to a pot of water that’s already boiling and letting them simmer for 12 minutes will make them easier to peel, instead of the traditional method of adding eggs to a pot of cold water and then bringing them to a boil together. Rhoda Boone of Epicurious swears by this method and says it allows her to peel a dozen eggs in just 104 seconds.
2. Age your eggs
Older eggs are easier to peel. If you know you’re going to hard boil eggs for an event like Easter, plan ahead and use eggs that have been in your refrigerator for at least a week.
“As eggs mature, their moisture gradually lessens through the pores in the shell, causing air pockets at the tip to expand,” Jorie Nicole McDonald of Southern Living explains. “This results in the shell loosening from the egg white, making them much easier to peel.”
3. Only use chilled eggs
Make sure your eggs are chilled before they’re boiled to make them easier to peel.
4. Crack each egg before the water bath
Letting your hard boiled eggs chill in a bath of ice water will make them easier to handle, but by cracking each egg slightly before placing them in the ice water, you’ll allow water to seep under the shell making it easier to separate the egg white once you go to peel it.
5. Peel from the wider end
Once your eggs are cool, peel the shell off from the larger end. Since that’s where the air pocket is located, it’ll be much easier to slip your fingers underneath the shell and remove it in larger pieces.
6. Peel under running water
If you’re still struggling, peel the eggs under cold running water, which will help separate the shell from the egg.
