Hey friends, how was your week? So I’ve got another question for you this week and I am so hoping somebody can help me. It has to do with eggs, hard-boiled eggs in fact. I love them so much BUT I must admit I get so crazy frustrated trying to peel them. Why oh why is it so hard to do so? I’ve tried submerging them in cold water once they are done and adding vinegar to the water when they are boiling but nothing seems to work. My egg whites always end up in a mangled mess with half of the egg getting tossed with the shell. I wished I’d thought to take a picture to show you, it wasn’t pretty. There has to be an easier way. Some trick I don’t know. Help!
Okay now that I’ve got that off my chest I feel better 🙂
I’ve got four slow cooker recipes on the menu this week. It’s going to be a busy one so I need to be prepared and the slow cooker is my best friend during these type of weeks. Who else is doing some slow cooking?
Have a good one everyone!
My Weekly Menu Plan:
Monday: BLT Pasta Salad
Tuesday: Slow Cooker Hawaiian Ribs served with rice and broccoli
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Cheeseburger Casserole
Thursday: Leftover buffet
Friday: It’s another dinner club, whoot! This time it’s Italian night and since I’ll be busy all day with no time to prepare anything I’m going to use my slow cooker to make this Italian Mushrooms Recipe (it’s not your traditional Italian dish I know but it got great reviews on Taste of Home)
Saturday: Slow Cooker Sweet Brown BBQ Lime Chicken served with potatoes and corn
Sunday: Happy Mother’s Day!
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Cathy @ Chief Family Officer says
I have no tips … as I have the same problem! But at least you aren’t the only one …
SusieQTpies says
I LOVE mushrooms. My kids don’t but I am going to make the Italian Mushrooms Recipe. YUMMMMY! THanks for hosting this each week! susie
Ménage Lille says
I love mushrooms too! The Italian Mushrooms recipe looks delicious, but I see you have to cook on low for 4-5 hours!
Kimberley says
The only things that helps me when peeling hard boiled eggs (we love them in our house too) is to gently crack the shell around the entire egg and then i try to get my finger under it and pull it off in bug chunks……I also peel them under cool running water to wash off any little shell pieces I miss, there is nothing grosser than biting into a piece of shell!
Novus says
Have you tried baking hard cooked eggs? Just plop your eggs into a muffin tin and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes. So easy…and the taste and texture are better. As far as peeling, I find they peel best when warm. I rinse mine in cold water until I can just barely handle them without burning myself and the shell slips right off.
Max says
After boiling eggs you empty out the hot water and, leaving the eggs in the pan, run cold water over them whilst tapping them to crack the shell. Leave them submerged for a few minutes and the shells peel off no problem.
Works every time for me 😀
Karen says
I add salt to the water, and that usually helps. But…fresh eggs won’t peel no matter what, in my experience. I never try to boil them unless they’ve been in my fridge for at least a week (two if I got them from my sister-in-law’s chickens!).
Anna (Frugal For You) says
This is what I do too! And that is true with fresh eggs. Which makes me wonder why store bought regular eggs have super thin shells. You never really think about it until you get fresh eggs.
Charli says
Add cold water after draining them – then drain them again. Leave them in the pot, put a lid on top and play bumper car with them shaking the pot around. The shells crack and are easier to peel off. I still peel them off under running water. It works for me.
Anna (Frugal For You) says
When boiling eggs, my hubby taught me to add a tablespoon of salt or more in the water. That usually makes the eggs easy enough for my children to peel for me. So, you could try that! Hope it works for you. Party eggs (what we call deviled eggs) are my fave potluck food to share and eggs need to peel easy.
This my meal plan this week:
http://frugalforyou.blogspot.com/2013/05/menu-plan-monday-simple-no-fuss-plus.html
April says
I second the fresh eggs comment – my mother is the deviled egg master and has always said that she needs to buy her eggs for them at least a week in advance. And the emptying the water and putting the cold water on them.
Sharon at Momof6 says
Okay- but the real question is…. for Mother’e Day- who’s doing the cooking? 🙂
Laura says
LOL Sharon I wondered if anyone would notice that I left that day blank! As long as it’s not me cooking, I’ll be a happy girl 🙂
Keri says
I did the same thing on my meal plan. It just says “Mother’s Day, hmm…” Hubby reads my blog, so I hope he gets the hint!
April @ Angel's Homestead says
We’ve all been there with the hard boiled egg dilemma. I add a little baking soda to the water and that seems to help. Also, are you using farm fresh eggs? The fresher an egg is, the more the shell wants to stick.
Have a great week Laura! 🙂
Jenna says
Hi Laura-
My sister-in-law and her husband are farmers and they raise there own chickens for eggs. She says that using older eggs are the best–farm fresh eggs can keep for 6 months while grocery store eggs can keep for 2 months. The older your eggs are the better they will peel.
Rona says
When it comes to peeling off the egg shells off I wait for the eggs to cool off.
Fay says
The fresher the eggs, the harder they will be to peel – so make sure they are at least a week old (if you are using store bought eggs this won’t ever be a problem). Cover with water put on the lid and bring to a boil. When the water starts boiling, turn off the burner, keep the lid on and set a timer for 20 minutes. Then run cold water over the eggs until they are cool. Depending on your schedule you can drain the water and stick them in the fridge until you are ready. Not only should they be easier to peel, you will not get that stripe of gray around the yolk. When you are ready to peel the eggs, start by cracking top and bottom and then rolling the whole egg on the counter top to break the shell.
OM says
I choose the older eggs I have, because (as it’s been already said) the fresher they are, the hardest it is to peel them. The only trick is, after pouring the hot water out and running cold water over them, to gently crack each end and then roll them pressing slightly, so all the shell cracks in tiny pieces. Then, starting by where the air pocket is, peel them taking care to peel the thin “skin” behind the shell too. Usually that gives me no problems at all, it all comes off at once and very easily. There are some, though, that I leave permanently scarred!
Michele from Food to dye for.com says
Lol-I planned a lot of slow cooker meals this week too! How are you doing on the whole Wheat Belly Diet? Are you still doing it?
Laura says
Yep still doing it and feeling great!
Carla says
Trick that works for getting the shells off of boiled eggs: baking soda in the water! It needs to dissolve in the water before boiling. Then when you crack the shells, they will slip right off!
denise says
Don’t use super fresh eggs and they will peel just fine for you!
Janet @ Frugal & Focused says
Sorry I have no tips for the eggs. Sometimes they come off easily, sometimes they don’t. Thanks for hosting.
Stephanie says
My eggs turn out pretty great, I use salt in the water when boiling and let them rest a bit in the ice water when I’m done. When it’s time to peel, I gently roll the egg along a cutting board, which cracks the egg shell all the way around. I run it under cold water while I pull off the pieces, and I very rarely take out any chunks of the egg white. Good luck!
Cara says
I put mine in ICE water after 10 min of boiling, like ice chunks floating around – got that from “the Best Recipe” cookbook. It seems to work really well- minimal loss and much easier. I ahven’t tried the baked eggs trick yet, but here is a link I read just a while back- http://www.circle-b-kitchen.com/food-and-recipes/2012/12/31/baked-not-hard-boiled-eggs.html.
🙂
Wandspiegel says
I love that your meals are so colorful! The Thai green curry looks amazing! I’d say you ate well for someone with 10-12 hour days!
Kim says
I boil the eggs for about 5 min and then let them sit in the pan in the hot water for 10 min. Then, pour out the hot water and add cold water to the pan with the eggs in it. I do this a few times until the eggs are cool. Then they are so easy to peel my 2-yr-old can do it! 🙂 Hope that helps!
Kendra says
Part of it depends on how fresh the eggs are. (Though honestly, I never pay attention to how fresh mine are until I notice if they’re hard to peel). As I am ready to peel each egg, I run it under water – cold if they have just been cooked, warm if they have been in the fridge. Then tap the big “flat” end of the egg against the side of the sink to crush it. Then “roll” the side of the egg against the sink to crack the shell up some more, then peel. It sounds involved but takes a quick second all told. As long as the egg is fresh, it works like a charm.
How do you make your eggs? I put eggs in pan, cover with cold water (sometimes put a bit of vinegar in), and bring to a boil. Leave on burner, turn off heat, cover pan and set timer for 20 mins. When done, run cold water over them in pan in sink.
Good luck!
Paula says
Depends if you need your eggs hot or not. Also, you do know that they should be hard cooked and not hard boiled? Boiling the eggs makes that green/grey ring you see around yolks sometimes. Put the eggs in cold water and bring to a boil. Shut off the pot, put on lid and let sit 15 minutes -done. Now, if it’s ok for the eggs to be cold. Take them out of the water and put them in the fridge until tomorrow. That’s what I do and it makes even my fresh eggs (like laid that morning) peel easily.
Lani says
Older eggs peel better. If you get super fresh eggs you will have issues. Eggs actually keep pretty well in the cold…my sister sells eggs and she can keep them for way longer than you would think…as long as they are cold. I buy a crate at a time, so they’ve sat in my cold room with no problems…and they are easier to peel!
I’m using some Big Cook 2 slow cooker recipes this week….Coke and Ketchup Pork Chops and some Honey Garlic Chicken! So nice to be able to pull them out of the freezer!!
Patty says
A little late for the 31 days of March Organizational Challenge I know (and off the topic of food!) but I decided to take on your challenge a month and a bit late. I just posted my first blog post about it (see below) if you are interested in reading. Developing a weekly meal plan is on my goal list for 2013. Love your site! I check in on it several times a week.
http://fourboysandanlgirl.blogspot.ca/2013/05/organizational-challenge.html
Lonnie Thaler says
Hi Laura! I usually cut my hard-boiled egg in half using a table knife then scoop it using the spoon. It is faster than peeling the egg. I learned it from my cousin who is a West Point Graduate.
Ana says
DH uses a knife to lop off the tops of hard boiled eggs, then uses a spoon to carve out the innards. Works like a charm with semi-soft and hard boiled eggs. My trick is to cover the eggs with cold water, set them to boil on the stove, and as soon as the water bubbles set the timer for 3min. When the timer goes, take off stove and drain {cool the eggs with cold water}, or leave them to boil a little longer if you want the yolk hard. 🙂
Heather m says
Several tablespoons of salt if you are doing a dozen fresh eggs really does the trick .
Cheryl says
For your hard boiled egg issue – use older eggs. I don’t know why it works, but it does. I usually boil mine when they are about to expire and have no problems. We don’t go thru eggs that quickly anyway, so when I need them for baking, breakfast I buy fresh, then by the time I need them again those are old, get boiled and I buy fresh again 🙂
amanda snow says
try a little baking soda in the water while cooking. like a teaspoon or 2…. the shell should slide right off!!!
Mandi Moore says
This has been the BEST recipe I have found and SUPER easy!
http://bestlittlemoorehouseintexas.blogspot.com/
Mandi
Best Little Moore House In Texasa>