Published: Jan 15, 2017 by Tracy
When you think of a good, hearty, homemade breakfast, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Eggs. Delicious, firm white outsides with a creamy bright yellow center.
 Our delicious eggs. | Fresh eggs are notoriously hard to peel. The shell and membrane underneath seem forever attached to the whites and usually you end up with a lumpy mess, very little egg white and lots of waste. About two weeks before Easter, we have to separate a dozen and save them so they will be "old" enough to peel easily when boiled. You may have had the same issues if you've ever bought our eggs. We try to make sure our customers get the best, freshest eggs possible - but that comes at a price. Older eggs are just easier to peel. |
It’s the membrane just underneath the egg shell that makes this so. In fresh eggs that are only a couple days old or so, this membrane adheres tightly to the shell, which means getting the shell off without pulling off the membrane and egg white is darn near impossible. As the egg gets older though, the shell and membrane begin to loosen their grip on each other and can be more easily separated (which is eerily similar to my past relationships). That’s why eggs from the supermarket peel so easily. They’re usually at least a couple weeks old.
I’ve tried all of the “tried and true” methods for hard boiling fresh eggs. I’ve added salt to the water, baking soda to the water, tapped the large end slightly to break the shell, oil in the water, lighting candles and praying to the Poultry God to give me at least a few salvageable eggs. Want to know what all of these techniques do quite well?
NOT A DAMN THING.
Enter our new savior - and yours too if you trust us - steamed eggs. Perfectly beautiful hard steamed eggs
- Put your eggs in a steamer basket above lukewarm water. We have a large one that fits neatly inside a large pot.
- Put it on the stove, add the lid and start the boiling process. You can start your timer as soon as you put it on the stove. Set it to 20 minutes.
- About 5 minutes before time is up, take a large bowl with cold water and add a few ice cubes.
- Once eggs are ready, use tongs to carefully plunge them in the ice bath. Let sit for 10 minutes then peel away!
