How to peel hard boiled eggs

I know that I don’t need a steam oven to hard boil eggs. I’m the one who linked the method using a steamer.

Unless you’ve tried both a steam oven and Paula Wolfert’s recipe, you don’t know if a steam oven would make a difference.

I don’t see steam making a difference in the physics or chemistry.

That’s not exactly the Paula Wolfert recipe I use, which has been 100% foolproof so far. The one in Mediterranean Grains and Greens is 2 cups of polenta and 7-10 cups water, bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes, stir, bake 10 minutes more, remove from oven, and wait 5 minutes before serving.

I use this:

And use one cup polenta and six cups water.

That’s pretty much identical to the recipe Paula Wolfert published.

The ratio of polenta to water varies between 1 to 3 and 1 to 6 depending on what consistency you want. The latter would probably be inappropriate if you want to grill it.

I always want it creamy.

Even for grilling?

I don’t hate it that way but my super strong preference is creamy.

Same here. The pressure cooker is the way to go. 4-6 mins on low pressure

I tried to steam eggs, finally. I used duck eggs and steamed five eggs for two minutes in my steamer oven. It said steam for two minutes, mix them and then steam for one more minute, but after two minutes it seemed fully cooked, for my taste. I added a few uni to the raw eggs and then topped with a few more.

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Another interesting idea for well formed, easily peeled hard boiled eggs was floated by Dave Arnold in the 11/27/22 episode of Cooking Issues. Arnold had some pasteurized eggs left over from another application and he noticed that after boiling them they retained their shape and peeled very easily. He was also VERY clear that this was completely untested and just an interesting result from his recent experience so don’t @ him if you disagree.

This is a largely unsubstantiated opinion from personal experience but I’m also on team pressure cooker hard boiled eggs. I eat very few boiled eggs but it’s hard to believe that boiled eggs could be easier to peel than pressure cooked considering egg shells are slightly porous and a quick release would likely weaken the shells in a pressure cooker.

Still, I haven’t done any comparisons between cooking methods and they wouldn’t have been that rigorous in any case. In the other FTC post on Kenji Lopez-Alt’s first article for the NY Times regarding boiled eggs I thought it might be helpful if he was a little more precise about the results he was hoping to achieve. As I recall, he seems (understandably) concerned about the tenderness of the eggs and makes a reasonable claim that pressure cooked eggs result in tougher whites. Given his first requirement for boiled eggs from the paywalled NY Times article is tenderness “throughout” maybe a slightly tougher egg also results in a weakened shell. Then again, maybe a tougher egg just means it’s less likely to fragment when peeling.

I dunno, I don’t really have any skin in this game. I just think it’s kind of cool that such a basic ingredient and such a basic cooking technique can still elicit so many opinions and efforts.

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wife boils eggs all the time and doesn’t have issues. she just cooks them… then cracks them in the sauce pan by bouncing them around and adds cold water which gets under the membrane. dig that Pod

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Posting the Instant Pot method for easy searching: 1 cup water, put eggs on rack, 5 minutes at high pressure, wait 5 minutes, release pressure, put eggs in cold water.

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My “technique” is similar. I carry the done eggs still in the pot to the sink, dump out what water I can, run the faucet and dump in some ice. I crack the eggs against the side of the pot and let sit for five minutes.

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I don’t bother with ice. They cool fast enough with tap water. Leaving them in the hot pot is counterproductive.

Pot’s not hot once cold tap water and ice are added. And frequently I want to use them asap. PS: In my family I’m known as THE best egg salad maker so I know a tad about boiling eggs :slight_smile:

I’m going to add this here as it’s for BOILING eggs. I’ve done this forever and could have sworn it was from Julia Child. A quick google confirmed this just now. (I love Google!) Perfect every time.

I used that method . I found the shells to be welded to the white . After all these trials and errors. I found kenjis method to work .
Lower large eggs into simmering water for 12 minutes. Remove and run under cold water . Put back in the egg carton . And store in the fridge overnight. Peel the next day .It worked well.

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I might try that but when I boil eggs it’s usually to use soon. Not tomorrow. I worship Kenji :slight_smile: but…

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