Egg Science: Blame the Membrane As the egg ages, the white becomes more alkaline as the dissolved carbon dioxide (a weak acid) it contains dissipates. The more alkaline the white, the easier it is to peel when cooked.
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.
Ice Bath – the best way to get eggs that peel easily. Lots of ice and cold water shocks the eggs. Stops the cooking process and makes the egg contract inside the shell which makes peeling easier.
Up the alkalinity, and the keratin softens, leading to a looser bond between the white and the membrane—which means hassle-free peeling.
1. Use eggs that are not super fresh. While it may sound counterintuitive, slightly older eggs are much easier to peel. If you buy your eggs from the supermarket, they're most likely old enough, as the USDA allows for 30 days at the factory, and another 30 days for the sell-by date.
Egg Science: Blame the Membrane
The more alkaline the white, the easier it is to peel when cooked.
Do Brown Eggs Have a Harder Shell? The shells of both color eggs have the same thickness. If you've ever noticed that an eggshell seems tougher, it's because of the age of the chicken, and not the color of the egg.
Add salt and vinegar to the water before cooking.
The salt permeates the shell a little bit, and the vinegar helps to break down the shells, making them easier to peel.
Keeping Hard-Boiled Eggs Fresh
For maximum freshness, leave them in their shells until you are ready to eat or prepare. The shell will help to protect the egg from bacteria, and can help prevent them from absorbing odors from other foods in your refrigerator.
Brown eggs tend to be larger, but this doesn't affect shoppers. Some people claim brown eggs are better for boiling because the shells are less likely to crack, but that is not much of a selling point.
Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot with the lid. Allow the eggs to sit in the hot water for the following times according to the desired doneness: 3 minutes for SOFT boiled; 6 minutes for MEDIUM boiled; 12 minutes for HARD boiled.
A boiling start for 30 seconds to a very gentle simmer for 13 minutes, then an ice bath at the end makes perfect, easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs.
For easy peeling, let the cracked eggs sit in a bowl of water for a few minutes. Or peel the egg under running tap water. Hard-boiled eggs peel the easiest right after ice bath. If you're making deviled eggs, cook the eggs right before making it.
Eggs come in many colors, depending on the breed of chicken. However, there's no nutritional difference between brown and white eggs. In the end, the only real difference is shell color and maybe price.
The color of the egg doesn't matter. What is important is the quality of the egg. You might notice that most chefs and bakers use brown eggs instead of white. This is most likely because brown eggs tend to be fresher than white as they come from local farms.
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.
There is a membrane that contains the white and yolk that is attached to the shell (in fresh eggs). As the air bubble expands, it separates the membrane from the shell. Voila!
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.
Yes. Beneath the shell, the eggs are just the same, cook up the same, taste the same, and contain the same nutritional value.
A general rule, unwashed eggs will last around two weeks unrefrigerated and about three months or more in your refrigerator. If you're experiencing an egg boom, it's smart to refrigerate any unwashed fresh eggs you aren't planning to eat immediately.