We have chickens in our backyard that give us fresh eggs every day. I love our fresh eggs for making omelets, fried or scrambled eggs, custards, puddings & also to use in baking. The one thing I DON’T like about these really fresh eggs is that after you hard boil them they will not peel easily. The shell usually pulls off half of the white part of the egg leaving only about half of the egg to use. Plus, they’re not very pretty for making deviled eggs & such. I had heard that for the best hard boiled eggs, you need to use eggs that are actually NOT fresh! That seemed odd to me! Even so, I would save eggs for a week or two just so I could hard boil them. I would even go to the store to buy the no-so-fresh eggs just so I could hard boil them. I tried everything I could think of. Salt in the water. Vinegar in the water. Baking soda in the water. Lemon juice in the water. None of them helped.
Well guess what? I finally found a way that’s whole lot easier than that. Life changing actually.
Rather than boil the eggs, I steamed them in a vegetable steamer. AND IT WORKED! I even tried it with freshest eggs I had, that had been laid no more than an hour before, and they still came out perfect and they peeled easily!
You know how it is. How many of you have had this happen?
Not good.
Here’s the secret:
Place the eggs into a Steamer Basket (or Vegetable Steamer
) inside of a large pot.
Add cool tap water, just about an inch or so. You will only need enough water to boil for 13-16 minutes without boiling the pot dry. The eggs do not need to be covered in water. In fact, they will not even be touching the water. The steam cooks them.
Put the eggs in the steamer basket or vegetable steamer over high heat and cover with the lid. When the steam starts to flow steadily, leave the lid on the pot and set the timer. (Small – Medium eggs will need to steam for about 13-14 minutes. Extra large eggs need about 15-16 minutes.) As soon as the timer rings. immediately remove the eggs from the steamer (either by using a large spoon or lifting the steamer basket out of the pot.) Plunge the eggs directly into ice water and allow them to cool completely. You may need to add more ice if it melts, in order to keep the water cold.
The reason for the ice bath is that you need to stop the cooking right away. If the eggs are left in the hot pot, they will continue to cook and quickly become overcooked. Overcooking is the reason hard boiled eggs will develop that ugly, un-appetizing grayish ring around what should be the pretty yellow yolk. It’s not harmful to eat, it just looks gross!
Once they’re cool, refrigerate the eggs until needed. These will peel perfectly right away or even after being chilled in the refrigerator! You’re gonna love this new trick! It will change your life!
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Thanks. Fantastic stuff!
This really was a life changing tip for me! I am in charge of bringing deviled eggs to Easter brunch. It used to take me 20 minutes to shell a dozen eggs. It took less than 5 today. Now I just need to refine the time. Medium eggs were overcooked at 20 minutes. Thank you!
After the eggs cool, crack it all around and run it under cold or cool water while you peel it. The shell should slip right off, leaving you with one beautifully hard boiled and delicious egg.
When eggs are done, I replace the hot with cold water, cover with a tight fitting lid and hold it firmly while shaking the pot, thus cracking the shells, voila’ eggs are ready to peel!
Thanks for the great tip! After spending about 50 years in the kitchen, I have been of course boiling the eggs, after a fashion, but then as soon as the water came to a boil, I would put the lid on the pot and remove it from the heat. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes and then dump them in ice water, keeping the water iced until the eggs were cold. Most of the time, I was making them for an immediate need, so after draining them, I would gently toss them around in the pot to crack the shells, and they always peeled clean. Sometimes, if I lost track of the time, they would get overdone, the yolks turned gray around the edge, and look bad. That’s no good either, no matter how easily they peeled.
SO, I will use my colander inside the 4 quart pot, and steam them by your method, and see how it works out. I’m sure it will be an improvement on gray yolks! I do love it when hard boiled eggs come out with bright yellow yolks! To me, that’s one of the signs of a talented cook!
I will definitely try your method!
Thanks for the tip – I’ll be trying this out very soon! I just wanted to check something though… Do you put the eggs over cold water, bring to the boil and then start timing or do you start with hot water (e.g. From the kettle)? Thanks 🙂
Just start with cold water. Since it is not very deep, it starts to steam pretty quickly.
Oh. My. Gosh. Fifteen minutes to perfection! Peeled so easy and cooked just right! Thank you.
Do you bring the water to a boil before putting the eggs in the steamer basket or let the water come to a boil with eggs in steamer already?
I just put them in while the water comes to a boil, then when it starts to steam, then I start the timer.
Thank you. I am excited to try this with my farm fresh eggs for easter tomorrow!
Duh! I never thought to steam them on the stove, but now that I think about it, that’s exactly what I do in the microwave with my microwave egg cooker. I love it, but it only does 4 eggs, so when I need a bunch, I’ll have to do this. Thanks!
This is amazing! For years I’ve paid for the already made ones in the grocery store because I just could not perfect the hard boiled egg… THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Did 13 1/2 minutes, ice bath, then put in a small Tupperware container, shook it up and they literally peeled themselves. I’m sharing this with everyone I know!!