I'm quite happy with my
current
method of shelling
fresh, hard-boiled eggs, since it's fast and gets
out all the
whites, but the result isn't suitable for deviled eggs. So when I
stumbled across this
method of making
your fresh eggs easier to shell, my ears perked
right up.
According to Harold
McGee, author of On
Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, the
problem with shelling fresh eggs isn't lack of an air pocket, but is
instead an acidic albumen (egg white.) Hard-boil a fresh egg with
an acidic albumen, and the whites will bind to the membrane of the egg
and be impossible to peel. Over time, the albumen's pH naturally
rises, making the proteins in the whites bind to themselves rather than
to the membrane --- suddenly, the egg is peelable.
McGee's solution is
simple --- add half a teaspoon of baking soda to
each quart of water you plan to boil your fresh eggs in. This
raises the pH of the water, which makes the albumen less acidic, and
makes your eggs easier to peel. As you can see from this photo,
the blogger who turned me on to the new hard-boiling method got very
pretty eggs by following McGee's advice.
We don't have any spare eggs
to hard-boil at the moment since our
chickens are in the midst of their molt,
but this trick is definitely worth saving for future
experimentation. In the spring, I always want to get rid of my
excess eggs by bringing deviled eggs to potlucks, but the idea of
painfully peeling them all holds me back. Maybe in 2011, deviled
eggs will become our primary potluck item.
As a side note, I
couldn't resist throwing in this video showing Tim
Ferriss's method of shelling hard-boiled eggs. It's just crazy
enough to work.
Looking for another solution
to a common chicken-keeping problem? Our homemade chicken
waterer never spills or fills with poop.
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It works.
Brought a dozen eggs up to a simmer in a large pot of cold water with the added NaHCO3. Not a single egg was a floater, not even a hint of being a floater - they all were firmly setting on the bottom of the stock pot, and this is normally a recipe for disaster for hard cooked eggs. But I really wanted to see how this would go.
I know cold water makes the shells permeable, so I'm thinking the lower pH actually has a chance to get in there to change the albumen's pH. Finally simmer near a tiny roll but not a true boil and I dragged the pot off the burner and covered.
At sea level this would be a 15 minute wait but at my altitude this adjusts to 18 minutes. Then under the faucet for a cold water flush to stop the cooking, pushing the warm water out. At last satisfied that all the water with the baking soda is gone, all the water is fresh and cold, I crack an egg shell. I find that bit of film and start peeling.
And I'm done. DONE! With moving water or underwater, these eggs are slick as eels to peel perfectly. You can peel them without the water but they just aren't as effortless. And aren't we seeking effortless? Indeed.
This is a winner.
Comment by
Titus
— Friday evening, December 24th, 2010
Thanks so much for trying and sharing! Now I'm dying for the flock to lay a bit faster so that we can give it a shot. At the moment, I'm using all of their eggs in desserts... That's what I get for letting the flock age on me without adding fresh blood.
Comment by
anna
— Saturday afternoon, December 25th, 2010
It works. Brought a dozen eggs up to a simmer in a large pot of cold water with the added NaHCO3. Not a single egg was a floater, not even a hint of being a floater - they all were firmly setting on the bottom of the stock pot, and this is normally a recipe for disaster for hard cooked eggs. But I really wanted to see how this would go. I know cold water makes the shells permeable, so I'm thinking the lower pH actually has a chance to get in there to change the albumen's pH. Finally simmer near a tiny roll but not a true boil and I dragged the pot off the burner and covered. At sea level this would be a 15 minute wait but at my altitude this adjusts to 18 minutes. Then under the faucet for a cold water flush to stop the cooking, pushing the warm water out. At last satisfied that all the water with the baking soda is gone, all the water is fresh and cold, I crack an egg shell. I find that bit of film and start peeling. And I'm done. DONE! With moving water or underwater, these eggs are slick as eels to peel perfectly. You can peel them without the water but they just aren't as effortless. And aren't we seeking effortless? Indeed. This is a winner.