The rapid cooling of the eggs contracts the egg whites, releasing them from the egg's membrane. It also firms the egg white proteins, making them easier to peel. Cool the eggs for at least 15 minutes for even easier peeling.
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.
Give Eggs Time To Cool
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.
Here's a hard-boiled egg tip that we know to be true: Starting your eggs in hot, already-boiling water makes them easier to peel. In a column for Serious Eats, cookbook author and food columnist J. Kenji López-Alt found that "starting cold resulted in eggs that had just over a 50% success rate for clean peeling.
At the lower pH of a fresh egg, the proteins in the egg white bind tightly to the keratin in the membrane during the cooking process, which makes it nearly impossible to remove the shell without chunks of white attached.
The soonest time to peel hard boiled eggs is after they have sat in cold or ice water for ten minutes. Give them at least this long, to prevent overcooking and make the peeling process easier.
Leave eggs in the ice bath for 10+ minutes to allow for thorough cooling/easy peeling (you can place them under running cold water instead, but without the cold shock from the ice bath, you may have a harder time peeling, especially if your eggs are farm fresh like ours).
Making the egg “the McDonald's way” involves two simultaneous cooking techniques: frying and steaming. That is what gives the egg its soft, fluffy texture. Immediately cover the pan so the steam can build and help cook the egg.
When you crack the egg on a flat surface, like a countertop, the membrane remains intact, and will help hold the small shell pieces when you break the shell open and let the egg fall into your bowl.
Rather than cook scrambled eggs slowly over low heat, Chef Ramsay cooks his eggs over medium heat, pulling the pan off the heat as soon as the curds start to thicken, and allowing the eggs to continue to cook off the heat source for 20 seconds before returning to medium heat for 90 seconds.
Remember: Cold start = harder-to-peel eggs. It doesn't matter if it's in the oven or in a pot of water.
The fresher the eggs, the harder they are to peel. 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.