How to hard boil eggs to make them easy to peel is probably my most commonly asked question.
First, there is no 100% sure way to make your eggs peel better. I have, however, done a lot of reading and testing on my own. This is what I know:
- Eggs are easier to peel if they are not super fresh. Wait a week after you pick them up from us
- Steaming eggs is a bit more reliable than boiling and takes less energy
- You have to quickly chill the eggs after they are cooked
Here’s my method
- Get a bowl and fill it with cold water. Have ice handy
- Add an inch or two of water into a pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat slightly.
- Add a steamer basket on top. The eggs should not touch the water. Make sure you have a lid.
- Place the eggs (direct from fridge) into the steamer basket. Put the lid on. Steam for ~11 minutes for hard eggs (or jumbo eggs). 9 minutes for soft.
- Once the eggs are getting close to done, put ice in the bowl of cold water
- When the eggs are done, immediately place the eggs in the bowl of iced water. Wait 15 minutes
- After the eggs are cooled, peel them.
To peel the eggs
- Begin by cracking the shell around the whole egg
- Start peeling by the “fat” end of the egg
- Put a colander in the sink and you can peel the eggs under running water if you wish. The egg shells will collect in the colander so that you can put them in your compost
There are a lot of “tricks” out there but this simple method (put eggs into a hot environment, shock them to get them cold) seems to be the best.
In the photo, you can see one egg didn’t work out very well but the others are pretty good!