THE ART OF PEELING A HARD BOILED EGG FOR PERFECT DEVILED EGGS

For my previous post, WICKED CHICKENS MAKE DEVILED EGGS, I boiled 36 eggs, 18 using the method I learned years ago in my high school home ec class.  After losing about 3-4 egg whites due to the difficulty in peeling, I decided to look for another method.

I was determined to find a better way.

My old method from high school home ec was simple.  Place eggs in pot, cover with cold water.  Bring to a rolling boil.  Once boiling, cover with a lid, turn off heat and allow to sit 20 minutes.  Drain and peel under cold running water.  This has worked for me, but I always seem to lose too many of the whites because the membrane doesn’t totally separate from the egg white.

I had bought a cute gadget from a nice kitchen store, that promised perfect egg peeling everytime.  It consisted of  a plastic cylinder with a top.  Add a little water in the bottom, put on the top and then shake 3-5 times.  Voila, the shells would come right off.   Well….it didn’t work!

Looking at their instruction sheet, I realized they had included instructions for cooking the eggs.

 I tried their method and I am happy to report that their method worked.  I boiled 18 more eggs and didn’t lose any of the whites due to poor peeling.  And you don’t have to use a gadget to achieve the perfect peel.

I have now amended all my deviled egg recipes to this method.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil
2. Using a slotted spoon, carefully place eggs in the boiling water.
3. When the water returns to a good boil, cook the eggs for 11 minutes.
4. Immediately remove the eggs from the hot water and place them in a bowl of ice water for 3-5 minutes before peeling.
5. Peel under cold running water.

Right after I ran my WICKED EGGS MAKE DEVILED EGGS post, I came across a post from The Chef Recipe, which basically used the same method and also included a few tips.

One is to use older eggs.  The inner membrane seems to detach better from the egg white.  I have found this to be true.  My daughter in law, Carrie definitely agrees with me on this.  She has tried making deviled eggs with really fresh eggs, coming straight from her mothers’ hens and has trouble peeling them. I used eggs that were 1 week old in my refrigerator (bought at a grocery store.)

Another tip was the same as my new method…adding  cold eggs (with a slotted spoon) to a pot of rolling boiling water to prevent the whites from sticking to the shell.

The 3rd tip…  Shock in cold water.  “This method stops the cooking process and also creates a layer of steam between the eggshell and the white.

They suggested rolling and peeling the eggs.  I do think that fewer cracks makes the shells come off in larger chunks.

Also peeling under running water helps.

Since everyone loves deviled eggs, I hope this advice and change of method encourages you to make those deviled eggs!

Come celebrate with me.  I’ll save you a seat at the table.