I bought a bag of very small quartz-like rocks from Dollar Tree. I plan to use them for a craft project I have in mind. I found another use for the rocks before ever starting my project, keeping eggs upright while boiling.
I put just enough rocks into the bottom of a saucepan to stand the eggs on. After placing the eggs on the rocks, I add more rocks to cover at least the bottom two-thirds of the eggs. When I fill the pan with water, the eggs will remain upright and stationary. Works beautifully.
Do I plan to drag out these rocks every time I boil eggs? Of course not. The rocks were just an experiment. I wanted to see if I could come up with something from around the house to hold my eggs upright while I am waiting for a nice little wire basket from Amazon. The basket will hold seven eggs in an upright position while they are being boiled.
The eggs are going to taste the same, and perform the same, whether they remain upright while cooking or not. So, why bother? Well, I'll tell you. I made a discovery in my quest for the perfect way to peel boiled eggs.
I'm sure you know, peeling eggs easily requires that the membrane between the shell and the egg white will release from the white readily. And the best way to make that happen is to get water between the membrane and the egg white.
Cracking the eggs all over is easy. I usually roll them on the divider between the sink bowls. The next step can sometimes be a hassle. That is, picking away a part of the shell and hoping the membrane comes with it. Too often the membrane is stuck solid.
I did the experiment with the rocks to see if keeping the eggs upright while boiling would cause one large air pocket at the upright end of the egg rather than the air space being evenly distributed around the egg. It did.
As a result, I could easily pick away shell and membrane from the tip of the egg. I did one quick bang against the sink divider to start the shell cracking. Then while holding the eggs under running water, I rolled the eggs briskly between my palms to complete the cracking process.
Using this method, about half of the eggs peeled very easily. The other half? The shell slid off the eggs while I was rolling them between my palms. I didn't even have to peel them.
Another advantage of keeping eggs upright is that the yolk will always be centered. Often, the yolk will migrate to near the shell. This doesn't matter if you are making egg salad. But it can be hard to slice boiled eggs when one area of the white is paper thin. The slice usually crumbles. We want our egg slices atop our holiday platter of potato salad to be uniform and aesthetically pleasing, don't we?
This is my last egg peeling tip for 2017. Any more and I'll be tied for number of posts with 'How Soon Can I Re Dye My Hair'.
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After years of trying to make perfect boiled eggs for Deviled Eggs, and ending up with chunks out of them, I have finally found the answers.
Add a little vegetable oil to the water in the pot when boiling eggs. The shells absorbs just enough of the oil so that the shells then slide right off!
When boiling eggs, I used to always put the eggs in a pot and bring the water to a boil and continue boiling the eggs for 15-20 minutes.
To chop hard boiled eggs for egg salad or tuna salad, use a pie crust blender that is used to cut shortening into flour for pie crust.
