5 Ways To Peel A Hard Boiled Egg

I love egg salad. I love deviled eggs. My oldest loves hard boiled eggs. I make them all fairly often. What I hate about making them is peeling the eggs. There has never been one occasion that I have peeled a dozen eggs without a good number of them losing chunks and looking far less then pretty. So, this year I turned to the web to see how other people do it.

The ice bath method.

This is where you cool the eggs in ice after boiling. Then you tap the ends and roll to break the shell and peel.

This is how I’ve pretty much always done it. Sometimes it works, but there are many times that I wind with dents in the egg and some chunks missing.

The glass method.

This is where you put an egg in a narrow glass with water and shake.

It didn’t work for me at all. I tried it with one egg in the glass, as well as two eggs. I only managed to make one small crack in the one egg. When I tried it with two eggs both eggs had a couple of small cracks but nothing like the video indicated.

The one-handed drop method.

This is where you drop the egg onto the counter from a short distance, then roll it and peel. All with one hand.

No. It didn’t work. I got two broken eggs.

The blow the egg out of the shell method.

I found this one as I was running out of eggs to peel. I like the idea of not peeling at all, but I don’t like the idea of someone’s mouth being on my food. If I wouldn’t like it I have to think my guests might not appreciate it either. So I didn’t try this one.

The spoon method.

This is where you break the bottom of the egg and then slide a tablespoon along the membrane to loosen the shell.

This one worked the best for me. None of the eggs broke, and I had minimal dents and pits. Until I find a better method I’ll likely stick with this one.

How do you peel hard boiled eggs?

Melissa Pezza

Tuesday 7th of April 2015

I had no idea there were so many ways to peel an egg! I usually hit them on all sides against the counter and then peel them. I do it while they're still relatively hot. I've found they peel easier like that.

Andrew

Okay, okay, okay.. I've tried two of these.. can't wait to try the rest! I'm horrible at peeling eggs! I boil about a dozen eggs each week and half of them come out alright, the others are a mess! lol I've tried the glass shaking one without much success, the ice bath -- well, I don't keep ice on hand so it's usually 'cold water bath'... I'm going to try the baking soda and blow method next!!

valmg

I feel your pain! The glass shaking thing was a total fail for me, both with one egg and two!

Tosh

I will have to try these methods out, I had no clue there were so many ways to peel an egg. The only successful way I've peeled an egg was peeling right when it's done cooking.

Jenna Wood

I've always done the 'rolling in the palms' method, and found cooking with a bit of vinegar helps the process. This glass idea is fascinating through I will have to try it!

Let me know if the glass method works for you!

Daisy

This is good timing with all of the hard boiled eggs that we have from Easter. LOL - we went a little overboard in dying easter eggs. It was just too much fun! Now we need to eat them.