Egg Peeling Method #3: Boiling Eggs with Vinegar Adding white vinegar or apple cider vinegar to your pot of water allegedly results in softer, easier-to-peel eggshells. That's because the acid in vinegar dissolves some of the calcium carbonate that makes up the egg's hard exterior.
Baking Soda
According to our friends at Delish, adding a teaspoon of baking soda to your boiling pot of water will help the shell peel off seamlessly. Why? The alkaline in the baking soda will help your egg whites loosen up from the shell, making it easier to peel.
The vinegar trick is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to prevent eggs from cracking. Remember to use one teaspoon of vinegar for one egg. Fill a pot with water and add vinegar according to the number of eggs you are boiling.
Put the Eggs in the Ice Water Bath
Once the eggs have cooked to your preferred time, use the skimmer to remove the eggs and immediately submerge them in the ice water bath to stop them from cooking. You'll let the eggs sit here for about 5 to 10 minutes before peeling.
If you're still struggling, peel the eggs under cold running water, which will help separate the shell from the egg. For a more eco-friendly solution than keeping your tap running, you can just peel the eggs in a water bath. The water will have the same effect of slipping under the shell and helping dislodge the egg.
Adding a teaspoon of vinegar to the water may help keep egg whites from running out if an egg does crack while cooking. Also some people find adding 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the water helps prevent cracking as well as making the eggs easier to peel.
It can take 12-24 hours before a good portion of the shell is removed. A good sign of progress is a white frothy scummy layer on the top of the surface of the vinegar. After a day of soaking you can carefully remove the egg from the vinegar.
If you soak an egg in vinegar the eggshell will absorb the acid and break down, or dissolve. The calcium carbonate will become carbon dioxide gas, which will go into the air. What is left is the soft tissue that lined the inside of the eggshell. It will bounce!
How it works. Through a process called osmosis, the vinegar moves through the egg's shell. The vinegar dissolves the calcium in the egg's shell but cannot get through the membrane in the shell. This leaves behind the rubbery membrane that allows you to bounce the egg without breaking it!
The quick cooling of the hard-boiled eggs causes the egg whites to contract, freeing them from the membrane. If you let them cool for about 15 minutes, the peeling is much easier.
This is because the egg white or “albumen” in a fresh egg has a relatively low pH level, making it acidic. When cooked, these fresh egg whites bond strongly to the inner shell's membrane. As an egg ages, the pH level rises and the inner membrane is less likely to bond to the albumen, so the shell peels off much easier.
Egg white solidifies more quickly in hot, salty water than it does in fresh. So a little salt in your water can minimize the mess if your egg springs a leak while cooking. The egg white solidifies when it hits the salt water, sealing up the crack so that the egg doesn't shoot out a streamer of white.
To hard boil the perfect egg, put your eggs in a pot, and fill with cold water until the eggs are covered. Now, add ¼ cup of vinegar, and a teaspoon of salt into the water as well.
What happens? Be careful, the eggshell will be a lot weaker! If you leave the egg in the vinegar for about 36 hours, eventually all the calcium carbonate will be dissolved by the acetic acid, leaving just the soft membrane and yolk behind.
If small eggs are used, 1 to 2 weeks are usually allowed for seasoning to occur. Medium or large eggs may require 2 to 4 weeks to become well seasoned. Use the eggs within 3 to 4 months for best quality.
Enhances taste
It doesn't just help cleanse your eggs or help you peel their shells easier. It is also a very effective taste enhancer. Try adding a few drops of vinegar to the next batch of eggs you cook. It will give your eggs an interesting acidic bent to them that makes them quite tasty indeed.
You might have heard that you should drop your eggs into room temperature or cold water and then bring the water to a boil. This is a myth. In our tests, bringing the water to a boil first and then lowering the eggs into the bath made for easy peeling and more accurate timing.
Hard-cooked eggs may be difficult to peel if they are very fresh. This is because an egg shrinks inside during storage, which pulls the inner membrane away from the inside of the shell.
Add salt to the water to help keep the eggshells from cracking too soon. Add vinegar to water in the pot to make eggshells easier to peel. Add eggs to the cold water.
While overcooking hard-boiled eggs does have its obvious drawbacks — rubbery dry whites and pale crumbly yolks — it actually does make them easier to peel. That's because one of the determining factors in peel-ability is the pH of the egg — the higher (less acid), the easier.