Revelations for the egg

[flyinglentris]

The Egg, it turns out, can be as simple as cracking one open and releasing its contents, or as complex as multiple use strategies.

I list the things I need to know about Eggs as follows ...

1) Buying Eggs, inspecting them, choosing a size and type (Chicken, Duck, Goose, Gator, etc.)
2) Cracking open Eggs without breaking the Yokes, Sunnyside up Eggs
3) Separating Yolk and Egg White in Raw Eggs
4) Sauces or Confections from Yoke or Egg White
5) Using Eggs in Dough and Soups, etc.
6) Hard boiling Eggs and cleaning removing the shells without ripping up the Egg surfaces.
7) Determining when an Egg has spoiled or gone bad.
8) Creating Fluffy Egg Dishes
9) Consuming Raw Egg
10) Using Eggs in Beverages
11) Removing the contents of Eggs to utilize the shells for special artistic purposes.
12) Do Eggs really create a Hard Cholesterol problem?
13) Why does Egg remove the paint on cars?

Feel free to comment.

 

[rascal]

I love scotch eggs and curried/devilled eggs. My sons been nagging me to do scotch eggs again.

Russ

 

[flyinglentris]

I love scotch eggs and curried/devilled eggs. My sons been nagging me to do scotch eggs again.

Russ

I never heard of Scotch Eggs before and googled to find out more. Very interesting.

 

[Burt Blank]

We get our eggs delivered from a farm in Sinj. We visited to check it out. I make my fav lunch of coddled eggs on toast in the winter.

 

[flyinglentris]

6) Hard boiling Eggs and cleaning removing the shells without ripping up the Egg surfaces.

I recently went through the ritual of hard boiling Eggs for the Bedeviled Eggs recipe I posted and had a hell of a time removing the shells. I had boiled the Eggs for 15 minutes and then let them cool. I refrigerated them overnight to use them the next day.

I had a horrible time removing the shells and they tended to stick to the Egg and rip out pieces here and there.

There has to be a proper technique to use for removing the shells from hard boiled eggs, but I never really had a clear definition of what it should be. Sometimes, I have been very successful and the shells just seem to come right off without a hitch.

I think it may be best to remove the shells, immediately after allowing the Eggs to cool in a quick bath of cool water. When boiling the Eggs, ensure the water is boiling first, 220F, and then add the Eggs and boil for the traditional 15 minutes. The problem is that I don't know if this is the right methodology. Can someone put this into precise terms?

 

[mjd]

I recently went through the ritual of hard boiling Eggs for the Bedeviled Eggs recipe I posted and had a hell of a time removing the shells. I had boiled the Eggs for 15 minutes and then let them cool. I refrigerated them overnight to use them the next day.

I had a horrible time removing the shells and they tended to stick to the Egg and rip out pieces here and there.

There has to be a proper technique to use for removing the shells from hard boiled eggs, but I never really had a clear definition of what it should be. Sometimes, I have been very successful and the shells just seem to come right off without a hitch.

I think it may be best to remove the shells, immediately after allowing the Eggs to cool in a quick bath of cool water. When boiling the Eggs, ensure the water is boiling first, 220F, and then add the Eggs and boil for the traditional 15 minutes. The problem is that I don't know if this is the right methodology. Can someone put this into precise terms?

For shelling - Put the cooked eggs under cold water until they are cool enough to handle (you want them a bit warm). Gently crack the shell, put under the running water and it will slide off.

 

[TastyReuben]

Well, whether it's right or wrong, I'll say that seems a long time to boil an egg.

My method is to boil the water, then prick the fat end of the egg with a thumbtack to let the air out of that little pocket, then gently lower the egg into the water and immediately cover and cut the heat back to a slow simmer.

Time them for 11 minutes, then out of the pot and into an ice water bath for about 15 minutes. That's it.

I peel them under running water and rarely have issues with tearing up the egg, maybe one in every two dozen, and then it's slight. You've got to get under that membrane, and then the shell slips right off.

Egg lore says that fresh eggs are harder to peel than old eggs, but I've boiled many an egg as fresh as same-day, and I've never found this to be particularly true.

I'll add this - my sister had nerve damage in her fingertips...they're pretty much numb. She can't peel an egg to save her life. She destroys every one she gets ahold of.

 

[Morning Glory]

There has to be a proper technique to use for removing the shells from hard boiled eggs, but I never really had a clear definition of what it should be. Sometimes, I have been very successful and the shells just seem to come right off without a hitch.

I'm more or less reiterating what TastyReuben says above.

We've had many, many discussions about this before on the forum. The standard 'accepted' technique is to use older eggs and a bowl of iced water. The newer the egg, the tougher the membrane - it is that which adheres and rips out pieces of white. When cooked using your preferred method (I find 10 minutes in boiling water is enough) rinse under cold water and place in a bowl of iced water. Leave for half an hour or more before shelling.

I've also had good results with placing the hard boiled eggs in the freezer for ten minutes after rinsing in cold water. I suppose it has the same effect as the iced water.

Having said all this, there is a particular brand of eggs sold in the UK which seem almost impossible to peel. They are produced by the Black Farmer. Unfortunately they happen to be the eggs with the deepest orange yolk, which I like to use because they look so beautiful in photos. They also taste fantastic.

Back in May: Asparagus, Black Farmer egg and avocado dressing:

 

[MrsDangermouse]

I think I've mentioned this before, but I pressure cook my eggs. I've found it makes them much easier to peel - possibly the pressure causes the membrane to unstick itself from the egg white?

 

[flyinglentris]

1) Buying Eggs, inspecting them, choosing a size and type (Chicken, Duck, Goose, Gator, etc.)

7) Determining when an Egg has spoiled or gone bad.

Morning Glory gave one good reason for choosing a type of Egg by mentioning the Black Farmer Eggs.

I am not sure why size of an Egg would matter, except that maybe they are lower priced. The sizes are so close that otherwise, I can't see it mattering much. The difference between Duck, Goose and Chicken Eggs is something I further can't grasp.

All I can really say is that when I shop for eggs, I typically open the carton and wiggle test the Eggs as an effort to make sure none are cracked. A cracked Egg won't wiggle freely.

You can't really tell much whether an Egg is spoiled or bad while shopping. Maybe you can pick one and shake it and if it sloshes or bumps, there may be a problem.

Generally, a spoiled or bad Egg, from what I have learned, sinks to the bottom of a bowl of water and rests differently than a fresh good Egg. If an Egg lays on its side, its said to be Fresh. If it stands on its large end, its bad. Smell is of course, a dead give away that an Egg is bad. But to smell a bad Egg, one must open the shell, either by cracking it open or by piercing a hole in it. TastyReuben suggested piercing a hole in the bubble end of an Egg when hard boiling it and that would afford an opportunity to smell test. But I'm not sure how a pierced Egg will lay on the bottom of a pot of boiling water. What does a bad Egg smell like? I recall it smelling sulfurous. Again, shaking an Egg and feeling a slosh or a bump is an indication of a bad Egg. Also, the white of a good Egg is said to cling to the Yolk and ride higher on its sides. The white of a bad Egg will slip away and lay flatter from the Yolk. Hearsay?

Why should an Egg be tested to see if its bad? First, not many people do test the Eggs. But imagine that you have four Eggs cracked and their contents in a bowl. Crack one bad one and let its contents into the bowl and what do you have? How do you salvage the good Eggs?

 

[Morning Glory]

I think I've mentioned this before, but I pressure cook my eggs. I've found it makes them much easier to peel - possibly the pressure causes the membrane to unstick itself from the egg white?

I'm not sure you have mentioned it before. How long do you cook them?

 

[Morning Glory]

Why should an Egg be tested to see if its bad? First, not many people do test the Eggs. But imagine that you have four Eggs cracked and their contents in a bowl. Crack one bad one and let its contents into the bowl and what do you have? How do you salvage the good Eggs?

Maybe in the USA you get bad eggs sometimes - but I can honestly say in all my years of buying eggs I've never come across a single one. So I don't really think about testing them.

 

[TastyReuben]

Maybe in the USA you get bad eggs sometimes - but I can honestly say in all my years of buying eggs I've never come across a single one. So I don't really think about testing them.

Neither have I.

 

[flyinglentris]

Maybe in the USA you get bad eggs sometimes - but I can honestly say in all my years of buying eggs I've never come across a single one. So I don't really think about testing them.

I've never come across a bad Egg, unless it was some person who was notorious for being one. That bad Eggs are rare in the carton, is probably why most people don't check if an Egg is bad.

 

[epicuric]

One important egg skill omitted - how to tell the difference between a raw egg and a cooked one, when both still in their shells.