The Top Five Steps to Boil an Easter Coloring Egg Without Cracks

Holidays/ Celebrations

By: jseven 03-Apr-2011

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Introduction:

Every Easter I boiled two dozen eggs for my children to color for the holiday, and at least one or two of the eggs would crack while boiling in the pan. The insides would ooze out into the water and that egg was deemed a "potato salad" egg. That frustrated me because each one of my children was alloted so many eggs to color. I would then boil more eggs to make up for the cracked ones.

I never knew or bothered to find out, that there was a technique to boil an egg without cracking it. Well, there is, and I learned the egg boiling secret after all these years of cracking Easter coloring eggs. Like my dear mother used to say... "better late than never."

Refrigerate Eggs First

Fresh eggs are the hardest eggs to boil for Easter egg coloring as they crack easier, so make sure to refrigerate your eggs for a week to 10 days before using cooking them. This gives the eggs time to take in air and also makes peeling the egg easier.

Put Eggs In a Pan of Cold Water

Use a saucepan big enough for all of the eggs to lay single file on the bottom, don't stack them. Gently place the eggs in the bottom of the pan and then add cold water to cover the eggs by 1 inch.

Heat Just to Boiling

Bring the pan of eggs to a full boil and then remove from the burner immediately.

This is where many people, including myself for years, made the mistake of over boiling the eggs. Doing this method will not only prevent cracks, but usually eliminates the green ring around the eggs from overcooking at too high a temperature.

Let Eggs Sit

Put a lid on the pan of eggs and let them sit in the hot water for 18 minutes if they extra large eggs, 15 minutes for large and 12 for medium size eggs. This sitting time in the hot water gently cooks the eggs, producing tender, non-rubbery eggs that should not crack.

Get the Eggs Cold

It is important to cool the eggs for easier peeling later on. You can run cold water over them or put them in a bowl of ice water and then refrigerate for the best peeling after the Easter holiday. You can color them right away, once they are completely cooled.

Final Thoughts

To peel an egg, tap it gently on the counter and then roll it between your hands until the whole shell is finely cracked. Start peeling at the large end using cool running water to help remove the shell.

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snowfence 6/22/2011
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Another H5
jseven 4/6/2011
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Happy Easter to all of you, too!
goodselfme 4/4/2011
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You are a good teacher to share the way to boil eggs so they don't crack.Happy Easter!
clewand550 4/4/2011
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Thank you for the tip on how not to crack the hard boiled eggs. I always seem to crack at least one. I am going to try this method next time. H5 list.
snowfence 4/3/2011
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Great tips on boiling eggs. H5
UponRequest 4/3/2011
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Great tips - you and I both seemed to learn the "trick" is begin with cold... I had a lot of potato salad eggs too when my kids were little! high5
litetender 4/3/2011
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High five!!!