Which method do you use for cracking open an egg?

Caribbean girl

Caribbean girl

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There is more than one way to crack open an egg. Which one do you use, and do you think one way is more beneficial than the other?

Usually if I am going to crack an egg, I would use a knife to do so. I would crack the egg down the middle, holding it over the bowl or frying pan. However, there are some people who always crack open an egg by hitting it against the edge of the frying pan or bowl. I do not like this method. I always feel more comfortable cracking the egg open with a knife. There are times when bits of the egg shell may fall into the pan or bowl, but does cracking it on the side of the bowl or pan prevent this from happening?

Which method do you use?

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morning glory said:
This is the way most chefs do it, I understand. And it does seem to avoid getting pieces of shell in it.
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I may very well try this method the next time I want to break open an egg. However, I have never seen it done before. The cooking shows that I have watched up to this point have always shown the chefs cracking the egg open by hitting it down the middle on the side of a bowl or pan. But tapping the side on a flat surface, and then breaking the egg open with one's hands, does seem like the best way to avoid shell bits.
 
Knife. Last time I cracked one open on the frying pan, the dog got four best part fried eggs.
Me, I'd to clean the mess up off the floor and get a replacement pan the next day. And go without!
 
I just tap it on something. It was the method my mother used, and it works for me. I don't often get shells in what I am cooking. I am careful. You can also blow an egg open by making a whole on the end point. I am not sure if that method is for cracked or raw eggs,but it does work if you do it right. As for me, I will stick with my method of egg cracking for simplicities sake.
 
If it just a normal hen's egg I just tap it on the worktop and then open it with my thumbs. If its a stronger egg like a duck egg then I'll use a knife because whilst tapping it will crack the shell its unlikely to break the membrane inside (that membrane is pretty tough to get through). I remember the one time we had goose eggs....I can't remember what we used to get into it in the end, but I remember that a knife didn't make much of an impact.
 
Neither option.

Hens eggs: I hold the egg with 1 hand: thumb and index finger at one end,usually the pointy end, other fingers and palm of hand at the other end, tap it on the side of the bowl and open the egg up using that one hand. don't need 2 hands to open the egg and rarely if ever have any issues with shell bits in the egg.

Ducks eggs: more interesting... 2 hands needed and quite often a very good creak on the edge of a bowl plus both thumbs into the crack to actually pull the shell apart because as noted above by @MrsDangermouse ducks eggs (usually) have much tougher shells.
 
Tap against the bowl and pull open. One handed for small eggs, 2 handed for large eggs.
That's how I've always done it, probably because that's how my grandmothers and my mother did it.
Mr K uses the knife tap method because that's how he's always done it.
I seem to have trained my children to copy my method.
Rarely have a problem with shell but it's easy enough to fish out with a spoon.
 
I just tap the egg on the side of a bowl and crack it that way - I'll never crack it directly into the bowl I'm cooking with though, it always has to be a separate bowl (mainly to avoid any potential shell bits going in, but I don't have that happen very often if at all).
 
morning glory said:
Neither. The best way to crack an egg to avoid shell bits is to tap the side of the egg on a flat surface and then use your thumbs to open it.http://www.wikihow.com/Break-an-Egg demonstrates this very well.
This is the way most chefs do it, I understand. And it does seem to avoid getting pieces of shell in it.
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This is the method I use. I tap it against the top (flat part) of the stove if I'm putting the egg(s) directly into the pan, or on the counter/sink edge if I'm adding it/them to a mix, or mixing several eggs together to scramble. I've very rarely had one or more pieces of shell end up in whatever I'm making.
 
I usually crack the egg against the counter. I'm pretty careful and don't blow out the egg. I also use my fingers to pry open the egg and not get eggshell into the bowl or frying pan. I have learned that if you do get a bit of eggshell in the bowl you use another larger piece of the eggshell to scoop it out. It works every time, it attracts it like a magnet.
 
I usually Crack the egg against the rim of the bowl and then bring it up and use both of my thumbs to finish the job. It is probably not the best way to do it, but it is hard to learn new ways of doing things when you have used the same method for so long. I just learned that you are supposed to use a spoon to peel hard boiled eggs.
 
Rosyrain said:
I usually Crack the egg against the rim of the bowl and then bring it up and use both of my thumbs to finish the job. It is probably not the best way to do it, but it is hard to learn new ways of doing things when you have used the same method for so long. I just learned that you are supposed to use a spoon to peel hard boiled eggs.
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Well from most of these posts here, it would seem that using a knife to crack open an egg is not the most popular method. However, as Rosyrain quite rightly suggested, it is hard to learn new ways of doing things once you have gotten accustomed to doing it a certain way from day 1. I am also thankful for this tip which says that you are supposed to use a spoon to peel hard boiled eggs. I always have a problem when it comes to peeling hard boiled eggs with my fingers. Very seldom do I get the egg to peel smoothly.
 
Caribbean girl said:
I am also thankful for this tip which says that you are supposed to use a spoon to peel hard boiled eggs. I always have a problem when it comes to peeling hard boiled eggs with my fingers. Very seldom do I get the egg to peel smoothly.
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I could never get boiled eggs to peel smoothly - then I read about doing them in the pressure cooker! I don't think its much quicker than boiling them on the hob, but cooking them under pressure causes the air pocket inside to expand which separates the egg white from the inside of the shell.....it makes them so easy to peel - the shells almost fall off.
 
Myself, I use the 'smack-against-a-flat-surface'-technique... it seems that when hitting a smooth surface rather than an edge of something (like a bowl's rim or a countertop's edge) tiny pieces of the shell don't break off of it as easily, and as well, any that do don't tend to get pushed right in to the egg (still in shell) itself by whatever edge you've used, after the initial 'crack'ing business has taken place.

Speaking of cracking eggs... what about peeling them? :wink: Found this while doing foodie-related research earlier today actually (am still trying to develop a customized egg-salad recipe for my silly tastes, so 'egg' has been appearing in a lot of my search terms as of late!)...

http://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2014/04/how-to-peel-a-hard-boiled-egg.html
 
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