Peeling a hard-boiled egg the easy way

It's all in the "crackling"!

Ever feel like pulling your hair out because that hard boiled egg just won't peel easily? Here's a trick I learned from a gentleman who I now think of as "an egg poacher from way back". Here's how it goes:

Things You’ll Need:

• Hard-boiled egg on a plate.
• Paper towel or napkins.

The stubborn egg-peel:
Sometimes, removing the shell from a hard-boiled egg can just about drive me crazy; especially when the shell remains "stuck" to the surface of the egg white. Some folks say that's an indication of a fresh egg; I say it's a pain!

It can be much easier; usually!
One day at work, as I was attempting to peel a cold, hard-boiled egg and having difficulty with it, one of my supervisors saw my dilemma, and came over to tell me an egg-peeling trick I've remembered and used ever since.

It's really all in the shell-cracking!
Normally, when I peeled or de-shelled a hard-boiled egg, I would just break the shell in one spot, then begin picking away at that spot, and working my way around the egg until I'd removed the entire shell.

Unfortunately, that method very often led to the shell sticking to the white, and chunks of egg white coming off with pieces of eggshell.

The trick is to "crackle" the shell!
My supervisor told me how, as a child, he would often steal hard-boiled eggs from his mother's windowsill; I never did find out why they were there; and, because he wanted to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible, he learned a very quick, effective means of "peeling" the eggshell, rather than picking it off.

The trick:
As I recall, he explained how he would place the egg into a paper towel or napkin, knock it on something hard to break the shell, then roll the egg on a hard surface, applying enough pressure so he could hear the eggshell "crackling" all around. Once the shell was sufficiently "crackled", he'd simply grab a loose section of shell, and carefully "peel" the shell cleanly away from the egg white; sometimes even in one long piece!

The knack:
It takes only a little practice to get this egg-peeling method down. The most difficult part is learning just how much pressure is needed to get an even crackling around the whole egg.

Tips & Warnings

• Once your egg is peeled, simply toss the shells away in the paper towel or napkin.