How do you crack eggs?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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Which method do you use? Do you crack them on the edge of the pan, on the counter/surface or with a knife? I saw somewhere that if you crack them on a flat surface they are less likely to shed bits of shell into the shelled egg and that seems to be largely true in my experience.

Oh - and do you shell them with one hand or two?
 
I crack them on the flat of the countertop or cutting board. One interesting thing I’ve found is that if I hold the egg “north-to-south” and crack it, it almost always cracks smoothly right around the egg’s equator, but if I hold it “east-to-west,” there’s a higher likelihood it’ll crack pole-to-pole, and with lots of little jagged bits.

Jacques Pepin is famous for cracking on a flat surface, as he cautions cracking on the edge can lead to introducing bacteria into the egg. 🤷‍♂️

It’s certainly within my ability to crack them one-handed, but I rarely find any practical reason to do so.
 
One handed crack on a flat surface. I watched the legendary Jacques Pépin do it this way when I was about 9yrs old. It’s one of those silly things I nailed the first time and I’ve been doing like that my entire life.

Lately I’ve been cracking 2 eggs at once, one in each hand. I must admit I feel a bit like a rockstar when I do that and it’s really fun impressing the ladies with 😂
 
Morning Glory said:
Which method do you use? Do you crack them on the edge of the pan, on the counter/surface or with a knife? I saw somewhere that if you crack them on a flat surface they are less likely to shed bits of shell into the shelled egg and that seems to be largely true in my experience.

Oh - and do you shell them with one hand or two?
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I switched from edge of the pan/bowl years ago to the flat surface, and found it to be a better way. As for one or two handed (like TV chefs), I never mastered the one handed method, and I'm okay with that. Oh, I very rarely have any shell in my eggs.

CD
 
I just crack with a knife (1 particular one) and split open with both hands. Shell in the white is a rare issue that is easily dealt with using the shell to catch the shell piece. For some reason it adheres to its own shell better than a teaspoon, knife or finger but it's such a rare problem I don't worry about it.
 
I just smash them and then pass the egg through a sieve... :eek: :eek: :eek:

No, not true. I always crack them on the edge of the pan/bowl, then gently prise them apart.
 
I crack them on the edge of the sink then break them into small bowls (as Herbie).

Duck egg s.jpg

Duck egg s.jpg


That's for poaching or frying. Soft or hard boiled eggs I crack all over on a flat cutting board then peel off the shells in the sink under running water.
 
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Flat surface, one or two handed.
 
Another little funny thing from Pepin regarding eggs: he likes to tell how, when he left home and moved to Paris to apprentice in a kitchen, he would get a good thump if he failed to use his finger to thoroughly get all the white out of a cracked egg.
 
TastyReuben said:
to use his finger to thoroughly get all the white out of a cracked egg.
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I always do that! Just never owned up to it before now. I look at the amount of white that sticks to the inside of the membrane especially on really fresh eggs and know how much it takes out of the chook that laid it. I just can't leave it in there (plus it burns and smells horrible when we bake the eggshells next time the oven is on, the shells go back to the chooks cooked for their mineral content).
 
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