04-12-2025, 10:27 PM
We get eggs from some people we know, when they are fresh, they are hard to peel when boiled. If they sit in the fridge for a week or more they are much easier to peel.
With the shortage of eggs now, the eggs are fresher, so they will be harder to peel
I did find a trick that works somewhat. We have always put the eggs into water, then brought it to a boil, then when it starts to boil pretty well, we turn the burner off, cover the pot and let them sit on the stove for between fifteen and twenty minutes, depending on the size of the eggs...large fifteen, extra large maybe eighteen, and jumbos around twenty. Then dump the water out and put in cold water to cool them down and stop the reaction that deactivates the proteinases from solidifying the egg. Heat destroys the protease enzymes that keeps it liquid....they are naturally found in eggs, these proteinases also destroy microbes that get through the shell for a while so eggs last for weeks even without refrigeration.
Ok, now I tried many things people told me and the salt trick someone told me works, it actually was not explained by the guys I know who had chickens, they did not properly listen to their wives who actually knew.
Here is what I learned, bring that water to a boil, then shut it up, and sprinkle a little salt into the pot and cover it. The salt actually helps to break down the bond of the skin inside the shell so it comes loose from the white that way when peeled. Then cover and let sit for that fifteen minutes + and do the cooling technique.
From working with an old time cement man who came here from Italy, I learned that salt on side the rode lessens the bond of the road gravel, something that county guys used to know, but lately, they did not listen to the old country drivers, so the shoulders are washing out. Now my old cement guy I worked with told me to stabalize the shoulder by the mailbox with calcium....morter has calcium in it, so do old bags of cement or lime. It works....After I found it worked I did research on it and if they wanted to stop some of the landslides in California, maybe just put some calcium carbonate on it to neutralize the salt from the air. I used what I was told by an old mason to find all kinds of solutions to problems. When enough animals sink in quicksand, the calcium from their bones could stop the quickening of the quicksand or quick clay....think that is called loda or something if I remember right.
So back to the eggs, if you put the salt in right away, the salt will penetrate the white through the film under the shell and it will blobs of the white come off when peeling, so that makes it problematic, only a sprinkle of salt is needed, too much will soften that white too much.
It will take you a couple of times to get it right, but it does work pretty well, I had to figure this out and evaluate what was happening on my own, at least I can tell you how to get it to work without screwing up many batches of eggs...but every area has different amounts of salt in the water supply, and of course, clorinated water also has an impact so adjusting the salt in our well water which does not have salt in it is different than using chlorinated water....remember, chloride is salt is part of this, it is not just the sodium in salt.
With the shortage of eggs now, the eggs are fresher, so they will be harder to peel
I did find a trick that works somewhat. We have always put the eggs into water, then brought it to a boil, then when it starts to boil pretty well, we turn the burner off, cover the pot and let them sit on the stove for between fifteen and twenty minutes, depending on the size of the eggs...large fifteen, extra large maybe eighteen, and jumbos around twenty. Then dump the water out and put in cold water to cool them down and stop the reaction that deactivates the proteinases from solidifying the egg. Heat destroys the protease enzymes that keeps it liquid....they are naturally found in eggs, these proteinases also destroy microbes that get through the shell for a while so eggs last for weeks even without refrigeration.
Ok, now I tried many things people told me and the salt trick someone told me works, it actually was not explained by the guys I know who had chickens, they did not properly listen to their wives who actually knew.
Here is what I learned, bring that water to a boil, then shut it up, and sprinkle a little salt into the pot and cover it. The salt actually helps to break down the bond of the skin inside the shell so it comes loose from the white that way when peeled. Then cover and let sit for that fifteen minutes + and do the cooling technique.
From working with an old time cement man who came here from Italy, I learned that salt on side the rode lessens the bond of the road gravel, something that county guys used to know, but lately, they did not listen to the old country drivers, so the shoulders are washing out. Now my old cement guy I worked with told me to stabalize the shoulder by the mailbox with calcium....morter has calcium in it, so do old bags of cement or lime. It works....After I found it worked I did research on it and if they wanted to stop some of the landslides in California, maybe just put some calcium carbonate on it to neutralize the salt from the air. I used what I was told by an old mason to find all kinds of solutions to problems. When enough animals sink in quicksand, the calcium from their bones could stop the quickening of the quicksand or quick clay....think that is called loda or something if I remember right.
So back to the eggs, if you put the salt in right away, the salt will penetrate the white through the film under the shell and it will blobs of the white come off when peeling, so that makes it problematic, only a sprinkle of salt is needed, too much will soften that white too much.
It will take you a couple of times to get it right, but it does work pretty well, I had to figure this out and evaluate what was happening on my own, at least I can tell you how to get it to work without screwing up many batches of eggs...but every area has different amounts of salt in the water supply, and of course, clorinated water also has an impact so adjusting the salt in our well water which does not have salt in it is different than using chlorinated water....remember, chloride is salt is part of this, it is not just the sodium in salt.
