How to Peel Eggs Easily!

Hard boiled eggs are so practical to use. And for some egg recipes, the looks of those peeled boiled eggs doesn’t matter so much. But then again, if you want them for deviled eggs, you will want a nice looking product. And besides, we always feel better about our work when it yields respectable looking results. And then, there is the work and stress that may be involved when peeling boiled eggs, especially if you are using rich shelled pasture raised eggs. I hope to show you how to peel eggs best from my experience.

Varied ideas and suggestions are available, but what really works? When you’re in the middle of peeling a dozen eggs that are turning out very difficult, you sure wish you would have known how to do it better. You would serve the family more deviled eggs if peeling hard boiled eggs were not so difficult.

Here is what I really like. It is simple but if I stick with these details, it seems to work well for me. I realize there can be a bit of an art developed for speedily peeling but anyone can do it fairly simply this way. Best wishes for hard cooking your next peeling boiled eggs for those special egg recipes. And if you have your own chickens, you will want be able to use up those extra eggs that at times accumulate for you.

Get your Water Boiling

Use a 4 quart kettle with 1 ½ quarts water and bring to a boil. Place 1 dozen eggs gently into the water. I like to use a spaghetti spoon or dipper to ease them in so as to not crack them. The eggs can be cold, right out of the refrigerator, or you may have them at room temperature. If you just got them out of the hen house, which is fine too!

Place Eggs into Boiling Water

Continue boiling the water with the eggs in it for 12 to 13 minutes. Smaller eggs cook more quickly than jumbo eggs. Colder eggs may take a bit longer than eggs having been at room temperature for several hours.

Prepare Icy Cold Water

Meanwhile, prepare a bowl of ice and then fill with water to place the eggs into once done boiling. I like lots of ice with a small amount of water. The hot eggs will melt the ice and I want to have it very cold. I like to have most of this mixture to be ice. I feel this is the most important part of how to peel eggs easily.

Also prepare another container with warm water, 110 to 120 degrees. You will want this to submerse the eggs in while peeling, after you have cracked them.

Then prepare the third bowl of water for your finished peeled eggs. Some ice in this container can be good to help continue cooling the hard cooked eggs after peeling.

Place Eggs into Ice Water and Peeling Boiled Eggs Immediately

Once the eggs have boiled the 12 to 13 minutes, I like to remove them from the boiling water and place them directly into the icy water. You can use a dipper or large spoon to lift them out individually or simply pour the water off the eggs and dump the eggs into the ice water.

As soon as I have placed the eggs into the ice water. I pick out one and crack it gently on a hard surface. A wooden cutting board can work but also the sides of the kitchen sink can work well. I like the top of the divider between the two sinks as a flat, hard surface to tap the hard cooked eggs onto while rotating them from end to end to crack them all the way around. You may gently roll them under pressure also to create the cracking. 

Next you should be able to see the shell has separated from the hardened egg whites. It should be fairly simple now to gently pull the shell off. But I prefer to keep the hard boiled egg wet while removing the shell.

And so, I like to remove the cracked shells under water! Use the bowl of warm water for this. As soon as you have placed finished cracking the shell, duck the egg into the bowl of warm water and twist the shell off. When under this warm water, the shell seems to almost “float” off the egg. I find this to be very helpful in getting a speedy easy peel.

5 Minutes to Peel 1 Dozen Hard Boiled Eggs

You should be able to peel a dozen hard boiled in within 5 minutes. And with some practice you might get up to 2 dozen or more in that time! You might decide to do the second dozen for deviled eggs or other egg recipes that you had not planned to make! At least you might want to tell your friends how to peel eggs easily.

Do Not Cool Eggs before Peeling

Sometimes you will hear suggestions that eggs will peel better if you place them in cold ice water and let them cool for a while before attempting to peel them. But I say, “Oh No. No. No. You are ruining your opportunity for a sure successful peel.”

Just remember: DO NOT WAIT for the eggs to cool before peeling. Only a couple seconds in the ice water does the trick. I much prefer to work with the hard boiled eggs while the hardened whites are still supple. I find them much easier to peel while still hot and supple rather than after they cool. The whites of the egg become much firmer as they cool, conforming to the natural shape of the egg with the shell.

But when the shells cool in the ice water, they will be crisp and seem to crack off much easier while the interior of the egg seems to slip away from the shell more easily of the hard boiled eggs. I hope you too find this to be beneficial as to how to peel eggs easily.

Choose Quality Eggs for your Clean Eating

You should be able to use any eggs to peel with this fairly simple procedure on how to peel eggs. Consider cage free eggs as a minimum for a value added eggs. Organic eggs would usually be considered a step better.

But I prefer pasture raised eggs. I believe hens running in open air with grass in their diets will produce healthier food for us to enjoy. Soy free eggs are from hens fed no soy products, thereby eliminating the scare of soy estrogens in the food chain. But then too, give your children an extra enjoyment of helping to peel hard boiled eggs with using multi colored eggs for the next egg recipes. Make some extra rich golden yolk eggs into deviled eggs for beauty and for health.

Children can help peel boiled eggs. Having a young child with you in the kitchen can assist in developing quality relationships for many years to come. And furthermore, they learn much better from hands on experience of real life, learning valuable skills for their future and even current characters.

However, you may choose what you would like best for your egg recipes. But do enjoy and eat clean and get lean! Eggs provide a good balance of healthy nutrients for us. If only they would always peel so easily, we would likely enjoy more hard boiled eggs.

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