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I put them in a pot of room temp water, add a dash, or so of white vinegar, then bring them to a boil. Once the water boils, cut the heat off, cover the pot, and let them sit in the pot for around 7 minutes. Then, take them out, and submerge them in a bowl of water with ice, and let them sit for approx. 5 minutes. Put them under running water when you are peeling them. It's a lot of work, but it gives you a nice boiled egg. The vinegar helps the shell to separate from the whites.
Unfortunately, a perfectly boiled egg and an egg that peels cleanly have some contradictions...
Your egg will cook more evenly (hard-cooked but no grey/green yolk) if you start your eggs in a cold pot as maggie2101 suggested. I'd also add that using room temp eggs will help with that even cooking process.
BUT a cold start will allow the whites to cook more slowly, causing them to adhere to the membrane/shell more, making them more difficult to peel. It's a dramatic difference. Boiled eggs that go straight into boiling water instead of a cold pot of water are always easier to peel. Freshness of eggs also has a big effect on how easily they peel. Really fresh eggs are more difficult to peel (darn it).
My compromise to get the best of both worlds would be to put your eggs into an already-boiling pot of water, but then very quickly (30 seconds to a minute) reduce the heat to low simmer. Simmer for about 12 minutes then run them under cold water to stop the cooking process before peeling.
IslandCityGirl, you posted this a while back, but I just thought I'd mention that I've tried your method here, of starting off with boiling water, at least a couple of times and it worked like a charm. It drives me crazy when the shells stick to and tear up the eggs. So thank you for the great tip!
I used to use basically the method a lot of people suggest, I would just cover the eggs with cold water, bring to a boil, then take off the heat and let sit, covered, for 10-15 minutes, depending on how done you like them, then put them in cold, even icy water sometimes, to cool them down. But I still had problems with the shells adhering to the eggs.
This is very similar to the trick I learned from Rachael Ray to peel a lot of garlic quickly. Put all the loose cloves in a bowl, cover it with another same-sized bowl (bowls with some sort of rim make it easy to hold on to), and shake vigorously. Takes the skins right off.
In my opinion, the method has nothing to do with how easy to peal the eggs are. It could be freshness, or the diet of the chickens, or something else. I don't know.
I cook them by placing the eggs in cold water and bringing the water to a full boil. Take them off the heat, cover and rest for 10 minutes. Rinse under cold water and peel when cool.
Yesterday I read an article about putting eggs in a muffin tin and baking them for 30 minutes at 325, then putting them into cold water for 10 minutes. Has anyone ever done that?
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