I’ve been trying to figure out how to boil eggs so the shell comes off easily. I finally figured it out…by accident. Repeated 3 times and it worked each time. I would always let them cool before refrigerating. One morning I was in a hurry, put them immediately in a plastic container and into the refrigerator. All 3 times, the shell just slides off.
interesting. It must have something to do with the speed of the shell and its insides cool in a fridge.
That may be why some plunge into ice water.
Cook’s Illustrated has an article on the best way to cook hard boiled eggs in the March/April 2016 issue.
According to the article, one should rapidly place refrigerator-cold eggs into boiling water (or steam) because the rapid denaturing of the outer parts of the white cause it to separate from the membrane.
I put them in ice water. It works great.
All these tips have the temperature changing quickly. It must be that.
It also has to do with the freshness of the egg. When eggs aren’t as fresh, the proteins in membrane around the white start to break down, and the contents don’t separate as easily from the shell.
Cooking tips:
Buy really big onions. Store them in the fridge and you won’t cry when cutting them. When you need some onion for a recipe chop the entire onion and put the excess in a ziplock and freeze it.
Same when you buy a head of celery. Chop the entire head and freeze what you don’t use.
When you’re ready to make a soup, etc., you have onion and celery ready to go and all you need to chop is carrots. A big plus is that you don’t have a head of celery rotting in the crisper.
@baseballmom that’s a great idea! My supermarket now only sells celery in a much larger pack than we can ever use. I didn’t realize it could be frozen.
Nordic Ware Microwave Egg Boiler
Strange. I could have sworn I had read that fresher eggs were harder peel than less fresh.
What Madison said. 
IME going straight from fridge to boiling water increases the chances of the eggs cracking once they hit the hot water. Not a big deal if you plan to peel and use them immediately, though. I get less cracked shells when I let the eggs sit at room temperature for a bit (15 mins or so, longer the better) before putting them in the hot water.
FYI for those that love a perfect soft-boiled or poached egg, with a slightly waxy or lightly thickened but still liquid yolk. I’ve getting perfect results with a sous vide gizmo for the past few months. It takes all the guesswork out of the process and you get perfectly consistent results every time. My family is a little bit nutty about perfect egg yolks though.
For avocado lovers: store your avocados on the counter until they’re ripe. Then put them (whole, uncut) in the refrigerator to hold them at that stage for up to a week or maybe longer. My chef sister just passed on this tip to me, aka the person that has allowed many a perfect avocado to over-ripen and “die” or sprout in the bowl on the counter.
@stradmom You can even cut up and freeze the carrots-they are completely fine after freezing-and then you’re all set to make a mirepoix. You think you’d like to make a soup and minutes later, you’re making it! No prep, no mess.
What’s the tip for getting more room in my freezer and knowing what’s in it?
Can anyone answer this egg question: Why does the US refrigerate their eggs (both in the store and at home)? In Europe, eggs are always kept at room temperature. As an American, it always freaks me out when I go to my British supermarket and find the eggs next to the baking products, rather than in a refrigerated case.
Because we are backward. The USDA requires eggs to be washed which removes the natural protective coating on the shell of the egg, which then allows bacteria like salmonella to get into the eggs and allows for quicker spoiling. The British and other europeans haven’t died yet.
@PlantMom …thanks for that top. Avocados are fairly expensive on the Midwest, so this is good to know.
@doschicos Makes sense. British eggs always seem to have feathers or chicken poop on them so I figured that they weren’t washed. I wash them before I boil them. Also, the shells of most eggs here are much thicker than the US varieties. They are very hard to peel. AND (you can tell I think too much about this) - all of the eggs here are sold by breed. I have to think about whether I want “blacktail” or “golden Irish” or “Burford brown” or “Cotswold legbar” eggs.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of the egg wash debate. I remember looking it up when I came back from Ireland two years ago: http://www.businessinsider.com/should-you-refrigerate-eggs-2014-7