Unsecure chicken perches

[syedraza]

Hi,

 

My chickens have been laying eggs since december and they look good and taste great (once fried). But if I boil them and then try to peel the shell, it doenst peel off properly. i end up taking awy most of the egg white. I heard somewhere that it may have something to do with not giving them grit, but I do that always. Please could you advise on this.

[ClaireG]

It's because they are so fresh. If you leave them longer before hard boiling it should make it easier.

[laurmurf]

no, it's not to do with grit, it's to do with the freshness of your eggs! The eggs bought at the supermarket can be quite 'old' and from what i recall there is more separation between the membranes surrounding the egg and the shell.

 

there's a better explanation on the site somewhere than i'm giving you: when we want to pickle eggs and need to hard boil them we collect them and let them stand for over a week so that we can peel them more easily.

[Space Chick]

Alternatively, if you want the lovely fresh eggs hard boiled, then just plunge them in ice for a few minutes before peeling. The shell comes off perfectly

[syedraza]

OK. thanks for that. that is very interesting.

[Plum]

Agree they definately peel better when they are a bit older. Must try the iced water

[Gelbel]

The DH loves an egg curry - so I made one last night. As Joy lays such huge eggs and I wanted to use similar size eggs (or there would be tears) I had to use some that were only a day old - NIGHTMARE.

 

The iced water does not work for me.

[Olly]

I always save older eggs for hardboiling (and for whisking, e.g. for meringues) - it is the freshness which makes them difficult to peel. If you have to use new ones, though, find the end with the air sac (the round end) and start peeling from this end, under running water.

[grracee]

As a few people have said it is because of the freshness of the egg. I used to hard boil the eggs off my chickens and often asked the same question and then I read it on a website somewhere, and to be honest, it makes sense! If I hard boil my chickens eggs now i run cold water from the tap over them for a few mins then leave them in cold water in the saucepan for a while. They still don't peel great but better than before anyway!