A Handy Tip for Cooking Fresh Eggs

I am so excited about this tip, I just had to share it with everyone. Now some of you who have had chickens for a while may already know about this, but for those (like me!) who didn't . . . it may be helpful. :)

I love having fresh eggs to enjoy and our hens keep us very well-supplied! The only thing that I don't like about fresh eggs is trying to peel them after hard-boiling. Fresh eggs just don't peel well at all, and I hated how my deviled eggs would come out looking like they'd been through a battle! Plus, a lot of the egg white is wasted when half of it gets stuck on the shell. I read a tip in a magazine that suggested cracking the shells of the hot eggs all over before soaking them in cool water. That helped, but who really wants to be handling hot eggs (it was awkward with gloves)? Not me. I was resigned to doing it this way, until a friend of my mom's shared this blog link with her.

Turns out the best way to "hard-boil" a fresh egg is to STEAM it in a steamer over boiling water! Who knew? I tried it last night and lo and behold, my eggs peeled much better than ever before. There were still some that ended up with "pock marks" but that may have been because I was in a hurry while peeling them. Here is how I did it:

Put eggs (I used six) in a steamer basket above a pot with a small amount of hot water. Bring the water to a boil. When it starts boiling, cover the pot and steam for 20 minutes (next time I might go a teeny bit longer--maybe 21-22 min.--just because some of my whites came out a little soft). Soak eggs in cold water for a little while, until cool enough to peel. Voila! Easy-to-peel steamed eggs. :)

Photo credit: sxc.hu