Hard-boiled eggs are deceptive in their simplicity. One wrong move and you’ll find your eggs cracked in the pan. Yet they seem like a simple dish. For that reason many home cooks get overly enthusiastic about their hard-boiled egg preparations by simply throwing them in a pan to cook. It’s just one step down the process from making egg salad or deviled eggs. But there’s a catch—or peel as it were—because the process of making hard-boiled eggs is ripe for complications. Eggs are a delicate ingredient and ill-timed cracks or chunks of egg white sticking to the shell can frustrate even the best cook. Fortunately there’s a cure for these ailments and you can probably find it in your desk drawer.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 America's Test Kitchen | 2023-03-01 17:00:26 |  482,418 Views |
The Best Way to Hard Boil (and Peel) Eggs | Today's Special
Normally used to attach paper to cork boards egg pins can come in handy when making a batch of hard-boiled eggs. All you need to do is take an egg straight from the carton and press your egg pin into the wide base. Then remove the egg pin to create a small hole. And voila! Your egg is ready to boil. Be careful when inserting the pin and apply light pressure to avoid cracking. Once you’ve pierced the shell you can remove the pin. The small hole the pin creates at the base of the egg helps with airflow and prevents air from building up in your egg. This prevents the shell from sticking to the egg white.
This pin trick isn’t new either. Notable fans of the method include celebrity chef Jacques Pépin and cookbook author Julia Child. Child even included the tip in her 1999 cookbook From Julia Child’s Kitchen . Essentially the pin punctures the egg’s air cell which helps to release internal pressure as the egg cooks. This prevents your egg from cracking in the boiling water which can make peeling incredibly difficult. And if you’re worried about your egg whites leaking when you pierce them try using an older egg. Older eggs work better because their air cells are larger so piercing an older egg is less likely to result in a pierced white.
That’s not the only reason you might want to consider using older eggs for hard-boiling. Older eggs are also easier to peel. And if you want to gauge whether your eggs are the perfect age for hard-boiling you can always try the egg float test: a simple trick where you test the buoyancy of an egg to determine its freshness. If your egg floats (and the air cell is large) then your egg is older and is a perfect candidate for hard-boiling. These eggs are also easier to pierce without puncturing the membrane of your egg. Keeping these tips in mind will ensure that your hard-boiled eggs come out perfect and uncracked every time.
