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Comment on YSK How to cook a perfect (hard) boiled egg

MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Eggs will be easier to peel regardless of age if you drop them into boiling water water instead of cooking from cold. It causes the whites nearest to the shell to cook quickly and pull away from the shell.

If I recall correctly it’s because the proteins in the whites go through two phases as they cook. First they relax like spring partial uncoiling and then they either tighten back up and tangle with each other like, or they cross link with each other like a polymer (I forget which). Regardless of the exact mechanism, if you cook them fast enough, the proteins in the whites bind with each other before they have the chance to settle down and bond significantly with the shell lining.

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Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Having worked in a restaurant kitchen boiling many eggs, there must be more to this.

This is the method we used, and every egg in the same boil would be different, so clearly this method has little to do with it.

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- SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Age is the big factor. It does two things:
  
  Eggs gradually lose water, which introduces more air into the air cell and between the membrane and the shell, making it all a bit looser as you peel.
  
  The pH increases, reducing the attraction/attachment of the boiled egg white to the membrane, which is why fresh egg shells are more likely to tear strips of white off as you peel.
  
  Eggs in the US can be up to 60 days old at the time of packaging, then are considered good for another 45 days. Large flats of eggs can contain eggs from multiple batches of varying age, so some eggs might be two weeks old and others two or more months.
  
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