Chef’s ‘holy grail’ ‘easy-to-peel’ boiled egg recipe

Christopher Kimball is one of the founders of America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country, as well as creating content for his magazine, podcast, TV Show and cooking school 177 Milk Street. Posting a video to the brand’s TikTok page @177milkstreet, the chef revealed a simple method for making “easy-to-peel” eggs.

Christopher says he discovered the hack while travelling in Paris, and vows that it will work on every single egg you cook.

He said: “Everybody is wrong about peeling hard-boiled eggs. We discovered while I was in Paris a few weeks ago it has very little to do with the cooking method and has everything to do with how you cool them down.”

Christopher has concluded that the perfect boiled egg is cooked for less than 10 minutes, but then requires some additional cooling time.

He explained: “So, this is boiling water. We are going to take three eggs and put them into the water gently.

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“It’s been eight minutes and 40 seconds and that’s just because you want the yolk to be moist.

“So, the trick here is a big ice bath for three minutes. Get the inside of the egg to get smaller, pull away from the shell and now it’s going to be easy to peel.”

The chef continued: “There we go, finally the holy grail is boiling them for eight minutes for 40 seconds and put them in a big ice back for three minutes. And every egg, not 80 percent, not 90 percent, every egg is going to be easy to peel.”

His video has amassed 62.1K “likes” on TikTok, with almost 2,000 commenters responding to the video.

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One user said they had put the trick to the test with fresh eggs. They wrote: “I’ve done this method with eggs laid same day, just hours old and it works every time! Awesome!”

Although the hack has received a lot of positive feedback, there are some viewers who believe the ice bath is not a necessary step. One user said: “You don’t really need an ice bath, you can just run cold water over them.”

Another suggested that the eggs should be cooked for no more than six minutes and should only go into the cold water for one minute.

One user said they had put the trick to the test with fresh eggs. They wrote: “I’ve done this method with eggs laid same day, just hours old and it works every time! Awesome!”

Although the hack has received a lot of positive feedback, there are some viewers who believe the ice bath is not a necessary step. One user said: “You don’t really need an ice bath, you can just run cold water over them.”

Another suggested that the eggs should be cooked for no more than six minutes and should only go into the cold water for one minute. Mike said: “Bring to boil with eggs in a pot. Boil for six minutes. Cold water for a minute. Perfect hard-boiled egg.”A third user said: “I use run mine under the cold tap for 20 seconds and it peels just as easy.”

Other commenters suggested that how easy an egg is to peel has more to do with how long you have had it prior to cooking.

A commenter named Dr Chu said: “Older eggs peel much more easily. If you know you’re going to need hard-boiled eggs buy a box a week in advance.”

Elsewhere on TikTok, another chef named Brandon who shares his cooking tips and tricks on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube under the username @sad_papi, said his easiest way to peel a boiled egg is with a spoon.

He also uses an ice bath to cool the eggs. However, after he removes the eggs Brandon taps the edge of the shell at the bottom of the egg using a metal tablespoon. “Just create a little entry point,” he said.

Gently tapping, he is able to create a crack which he makes into a small hole. This will then provide space for your spoon to be slotted beneath the eggshell and begin the process of smoothly peeling it.

“Take your spoon, get underneath and you can just take it off,” he explained. In the video, he can be seen removing the entire shell in one quick move.