Eggs are a major staple food in my household. Between baking recipes and having them scrambled or hard-boiled, my family regularly goes through five dozen eggs a week—and sometimes more. But while hard-boiled eggs make an appearance on a near-daily basis in my home, I struggle with one major issue: I completely butcher the peeling process.
Even though I know to run my newly-boiled eggs under cold water before peeling to separate the egg from the shell, there’s still a 50-50 chance that my de-shelled eggs will end up with dents and chunks taken out of them. So, I end up trying to tuck funky-looking eggs under pieces of lettuce in salads or putting the dented part in an egg cup to try to hide my mishaps.
The idea of making perfectly peeled, restaurant-quality hard-boiled eggs is a total fantasy. But, I’ve learned, it may not be that hard to achieve.
While I’ve spent years butchering eggs, I’ve simply accepted that my culinary skills are in other areas. That is, until I randomly came across a video shared by actor and content creator Adam Rose. The video promises to deliver those perfectly-peeled hard-boiled eggs of my dreams with minimal effort, so of course I had to try it.
Of all of the culinary hacks I’ve learned, this may be the most life-changing. Not only that, it’s no-brainer-level easy. Here’s why.
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What Is the Viral No-Peel Hard-Boiled Egg Trick?
It’s not clear where the video originated, but it was recently shared by Rose on Instagram. The video is simple: It says “For the people who hate peeling eggs,” before showing a woman filling a jar with water with an egg inside. She shakes it vigorously, and then pulls out a smooth-looking egg.
Rose tried the same hack at home, only to have it work—and flash a grin that can only be described as ecstatic.
Courtesy Korin Miller
I wasn’t the only person intrigued by this hack. “I got to be this age, wasting years of my life peeling hard-cooked eggs in misery, only to learn there was another way,” one person wrote in the comments. “Me watching this after ANGRY PEELING the breakfast boiled eggs,” another said.
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What You Need for the Viral No-Peel Hard-Boiled Egg Trick
You don’t need much for the viral no-peel hard-boiled egg trick:
- Hard-boiled egg
- A jar
- Water
Courtesy Korin Miller
What I Thought of the Viral No-Peel Hard-Boiled Egg Trick
First of all, this is pure genius. Putting your hard-boiled egg in water and shaking it in a glass allows you to avoid burning your fingers—another issue I struggle with—while getting a final smoothly-peeled egg. There were some specifics that weren’t spelled out, so I had to try to figure this out myself: Were we talking about a just-boiled egg or one that’s been hanging out in the fridge? What temperature should the water be? How full should the jar be? And does the type of jar matter?
I ended up using a freshly boiled egg that was still hot, with cold water in a mason jar. But I had to tinker with the water level a little to get a meaningful effect. When I first tried the hack with a full mason jar, it didn’t do much to my egg. But when I dumped out some of the water and tried again, I got a perfect-looking egg. The evidence:
Courtesy Korin Miller
While the video Rose shared showed the peel basically falling off the egg, I didn’t get the same result. Instead, my egg was cracked all over and peeled off nicely—but it didn’t fall off as soon as it left the jar.
I’m going to keep working on my technique until I get this just right.
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Tips and Tricks for the Viral No-Peel Hard-Boiled Egg Trick
I picked up a few tips while trying this out on my own:
- Leave a lot of air in your jar. In a perfect world, it would be about half full or even a little less. The goal is to have the water line be just above the egg, but not flooding it.
- Use cold water. Cold water causes a warm egg to contract slightly away from the shell, making it easier to get the peel off.
- Try a few at once. If you have a big enough jar, consider putting a few eggs in it at once to save time. You’re really only trying to crack the shell off, and gently bouncing eggs off each other can do the trick.
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